Conor McGregor is looking forward to his upcoming fight after watching one of his training partners compete.

Former PFL featherweight champion Brendan Loughnane recently struck up a friendship with McGregor when the two men trained together in Dubai.

Loughnane has been helping McGregor prepare for UFC 303Credit: @brendanmma – instagram

Last week Loughnane returned to the win column by knocking out one of McGregor’s SBG teammates, Pedro Carvalho, to get his latest PFL season off to the perfect start.

The 86-second finish saw Loughnane improve his KO record to 15 from 28 wins, which is five shy of the 19 ‘Notorious’ has picked up during his Hall of Fame career.

In the most recent episode of talkSPORT MMA’s Uncaged podcast, combat sports reporter Adam Catterall highlighted a list of British and Irish MMA fighters with the most stoppages by strikes.

Loughnane was already aware of it and pointed out that McGregor had got in touch with him after he posted about it on social media a day earlier.

“Conor actually messaged me when he seen it,” he said.

“He said to me, ‘I’ll be getting my 20th in [June]’.

“I said, ‘We’ve got some catching up to do, no-one is getting near Paul Daley.’”

Daley is a former UFC welterweight contender who was famously kicked out of MMA’s premier promotion for sucker-punching his opponent after their 2010 fight was over.

McGregor plans to make Chandler his 20th KO victimCredit: @TheNotoriousMMA – Twitter

Daley has set the bar for British and Irish KO artistsCredit: Getty Images – Getty

‘Semtex’ is known for his explosive power. The 41-year-old scored 35 KO wins during his career and is the most prolific puncher in British/Irish MMA history.

Welsh middleweight John Phillips is well behind him in second place with 20 KOs, McGregor comes after him with 19 and ex-UFC champion Michael Bisping rounds off the top four with 18 KOs.

Retired light heavyweight star Jimi Manuwa is tied for fifth place with Loughnane after picking up 15 KO wins in MMA.

Loughnane added: “It’s legendary. I have to pinch myself looking at that list, it’s mad!”

Loughnane is just happy to be in the mix with a bunch of MMA iconsCredit: talkSPORT MMA

Loughnane will look to keep climbing the and becoming a two-time PFL champion later this year, while McGregor is currently in camp preparing for a fight.

McGregor hasn’t fought since breaking his leg in July 2021, but he is booked to return against Michael Chandler at UFC 303 on June 29.

The former dual-weight UFC titleholder is aiming to score a 20th career KO and tie Phillips’ record to become the second-best finisher in British and Irish MMA history.

McGregor recently said he will fight on forever and he might need to do that if he hopes to get anywhere near breaking Daley’s remarkable KO record.