Conor McGregor is a professional troll at this point. The Irishman, of course, has been out of action for the past four years but that hasn’t stopped him from constantly feuding, insulting, and bickering with fellow fighters online. ‘Mystic Mac’ in fact has a proclivity for firing off heated tweets at people, only to delete them shortly after.

The Dubliner, who was once the fighter every young up-and-coming fighter wanted to emulate, has had a stupendous fall-off since the halcyon days of the early to mid-2010s. And this was nowhere more apparent than when prodigal featherweight prospect Austin Bashi’s answer to who he finds the most annoying fighter in the sport.

“Most annoying? Probably Conor McGregor,” Bashi told Andrew Whitelaw in an Exclusive ES interview. Bashi himself is a prodigal talent, having started his pro-MMA career at 18. By the time he was 21, the featherweight had already won two world championships in two different promotions, before he joined the UFC last year via the Contenders’ Series. Bashi is set to make his UFC debut on the UFC Vegas card on January 11.

It is a measure of how much Conor McGregor has fallen off to see how little respect the next generation of fighters has for him. The Irishman, always known for his bombastic, extremely trash talk seems to have lost much of his earlier charm. Instead, he comes across as a bitter, grumpy old man these days, who gets mad at the drop of a hat.

The Irishman of course, used to be the most exciting fighter in the entire sport, but no longer. Not only has he been inactive since breaking his leg in 2021, but his record even before that was pretty underwhelming. But even that could be forgiven by fans if the Dubliner was at least willing to fight and give it his all.

But fans suspect he just doesn’t have in him anymore to fight the very best in the world. And that is precisely why no one would be surprised to learn that Bashi doesn’t really find ‘Mystic Mac’, who was unmissable in his prime, very interesting. Instead, the featherweight gave that honor to one of McGregor’s rivals.

Austin Bashi’s pick for the most exciting UFC fighters

On being asked who he felt was “the most exciting fighter in the UFC right now,” Austin Bashi couldn’t decide between two top-ranked lightweights. “I would say, you know, Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler,” the featherweight phenom said. Michael Chandler’s also in some really good fights all the time, and like you’ve seen the fight versus Charles Oliveira, that was a crazy fight they had together.”

Charles Oliveira, of course, has the most finishes in the history of the UFC at 20 and is always a treat to watch in the Octagon. Even when he is grappling, which is ‘Do Bronx’s strongest suit. On the other hand, Michael Chandler, at the very beginning of his UFC stint said that he is just interested in having exciting fights, even if it costs him some marquee match-ups. And ‘Iron’ has stayed true to his words, as he proved yet again in his last fight at UFC 309, which was a rematch with the Brazilian.

While ‘Do Bronx’ dominated Chandler for most of the fight, the former Bellator champion almost pulled off a historic upset in the final round, where he almost knocked out Oliveira with a stiff punch. However, the Brazilian came back strongly and stayed on Chandler’s back until the end of that round.

Surely that cannot be interesting- just watching a guy take another guy’s back and ride him to the end of the round, right? Wrong. Chandler fought hard, even managing to get on his feet a couple of times, and slammed ‘Do Bronx’ to the ground. But Oliveira refused to let go and finished the fight on his back. No wonder Bashi finds the duo the most exciting fighters to watch. What do you think about Austin Bashi’s take on Conor McGregor, Charles Oliveira, and Michael Chandler?