Fight history
McGregor vs. Aldo, UFC 194: The 13 Seconds, the Stats and What Came Next
Aldo had not lost in ten years, and McGregor said afterwards he had expected Aldo's right hand. Thirteen seconds in, Aldo threw it, and McGregor's counter left ended the fight.
Aldo
McGregorAt a glance
- ResultMcGregor by KO (counter left, then two hammerfists), round 1, 0:13; referee John McCarthy
- The judgesNo round was completed, so no scorecard exists
- The stakesThe undisputed featherweight title: Aldo's 18-fight win streak and seven defenses against McGregor's interim belt
- The statsMcGregor 5 of 6 significant strikes and the only knockdown; Aldo 1 of 3
- The recordThe fastest finish in a UFC title fight, one second faster than Rousey vs. Zingano
- Our verdictA clean knockout, a correct stoppage, and no rematch to settle the rest
Watch the fight
The UFC's own upload of the knockout, from its official YouTube channel. The fight itself lasted 13 seconds; tap to play it here.
What was at stake
The undisputed featherweight title. Jose Aldo was the only featherweight champion the UFC had had: Sherdog's preview says so, and UFC.com's title history lists him as the division's first champion. He had defended the belt seven times, as UFC.com's title history, Fox News and Bleacher Report all record and the official record shows. UFC.com's own report on the night says six, which does not match its title history, so we use seven. He had not lost in more than ten years. His only defeat was a rear-naked choke against Luciano Azevedo on November 26, 2005, according to CBS Sports and his Sherdog record, and he had won 18 straight since, as Sherdog, Fox News and Philstar all note. He was 29, ESPN and Philstar report, and 25-1, according to Sherdog and Sky Sports.
Conor McGregor was 27, as ESPN, UFC.com and NBC News all report, and had not lost since November 2010, which ESPN, Fox News and Bleacher Report all record. The fight was first booked for UFC 189 on July 11, 2015. Aldo pulled out with a rib injury, as Sherdog, Sky Sports and ESPN all reported, and McGregor knocked out Chad Mendes in the second round for the interim title, which ESPN, Fox News and the official record show. UFC 194 was the unification bout. Aldo had not fought since beating Mendes in October 2014, more than a year earlier, as Fox News, Bleacher Report and the official record show.
The promotion was built on McGregor's talk. At the last press conference of the UFC's world tour for the original date, he snatched Aldo's belt from in front of him, as Bleacher Report and Sky Sports both report. Before UFC 194 he said: "I will KO Jose Aldo and I will face the winner of the lightweight belt," in words CBS Sports and Bleacher Report both print.
The betting had them close to even. Most lines made McGregor a slight favorite: -127 to Aldo's +107 in Sherdog's preview, -120 to even money at OddsShark in CBS Sports' preview, and -115 in Bleacher Report's table. Sherdog's post-fight odds column, using BetDSI, had it the other way, Aldo -111 and McGregor -109, and called the result an upset.
The official result and the judges
| Winner | Method | Round | Time | Referee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conor McGregor | KO (left hand, hammerfists) | 1 of 5 | 0:13 | John McCarthy |
The official statistics record a KO/TKO by a "Punch to Head At Distance"; Sherdog and MMARising list it as a KO by punch. The official statistics, Sherdog, ESPN, Sky Sports and UFC.com all name John McCarthy as the referee.
There are no judges' cards. The fight was stopped 13 seconds into a scheduled five rounds, so no round was scored, and there is no judge's score to print or to argue about.
It was the fastest finish in a UFC title fight. ESPN, UFC.com and Fox News all reported that it beat Ronda Rousey's 14-second win over Cat Zingano at UFC 184 in February 2015, and UFC.com and the official record also put Andrei Arlovski's 15-second knockout of Paul Buentello in 2005 behind it. The mark still stands. Guinness World Records lists it as the fastest UFC title-fight win, and the official statistics, which run to the end of October 2026, have no faster finish in a title fight.
The win made McGregor 19-2 and 7-0 in the UFC, as Sherdog and Fox News record, and it was his 15th win in a row, according to ESPN, Fox News and Philstar. Aldo fell to 25-2, as Sherdog, ESPN and UFC.com report; NBC News has 26-2, which does not fit his record going in, so we use 25-2. McGregor also took a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus, UFC.com and LowKick MMA report.
Round by round
Round 1 - McGregor by KO at 0:13
McGregor opened with a left and a low kick at Aldo's lead leg. Sherdog's play-by-play describes a long jab and a stomping kick; the Irish Times has a left that Aldo avoided, then a low prod with the right foot. The official count credits McGregor with one landed strike to the legs.
Then Aldo came forward. Sherdog, ESPN, NBC News, Fox News and the Irish Times all describe a right hand followed by a left hook. Bleacher Report's technical breakdown reads the right as a feint to set up the hook, and MMARising, UFC.com and Bleacher Report's recap mention only the hook. McGregor slipped the right, as ESPN and Fox News describe, and countered with his left, which landed on Aldo's jaw, as Sky Sports, the Irish Times and Fox News all report. UFC.com, Sherdog and the Irish Times call it a short left hook; Bleacher Report's breakdown calls it a straight left.
Aldo's hook came through anyway. ESPN says it grazed McGregor's face, and the Irish Times and Bleacher Report's breakdown say it landed after McGregor's left had already done its work. UFC.com says it never got close. The official count gives Aldo one landed significant strike, to the head, so we go with the reports that it landed, too late to matter.
Aldo was out as he fell. MMARising and theScore both describe him as unconscious, and the Irish Times says he was already out when his own punch landed. Sherdog and Sky Sports have him going down face first; ESPN and the Irish Times have him ending up on his back. McGregor followed him down with two hammerfists, as ESPN, UFC.com, Sherdog's play-by-play, the Irish Times and Yahoo Sports all report (theScore says "a few"), and McCarthy stepped in at 0:13.
On the official count McGregor landed 5 of 6 significant strikes: three of four at distance and both of his strikes on the ground, four to the head and one to the legs, with the fight's only knockdown. Aldo landed 1 of 3, all to the head. Neither man attempted a takedown.
What the numbers say
The official statistics for the 13 seconds (landed/thrown for strikes, landed/attempted for takedowns):
| Fighter | KD | Sig. strikes | Sig. % | Head | Body | Legs | Distance | Clinch | Ground | Total | TD | Control |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| McGregor | 1 | 5/6 | 83% | 4/4 | 0/1 | 1/1 | 3/4 | 0/0 | 2/2 | 5/6 | 0/0 | 0:02 |
| Aldo | 0 | 1/3 | 33% | 1/3 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 1/3 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 1/3 | 0/0 | 0:00 |
Nine significant strikes were thrown in the whole fight, and every strike either man threw counted as significant: the total and significant columns are the same for both. McGregor landed 83% of his, Aldo 33% of his. McGregor's two ground strikes and two seconds of control are the hammerfists at the end.
The numbers confirm the shape the reports describe: a kick to the leg, a left to the head that produced the knockdown, two strikes on the ground. What they cannot show is the order, and here the order is everything. The one strike Aldo landed was, in the accounts of ESPN, the Irish Times and Bleacher Report's breakdown, the hook that arrived after McGregor's left. The fight was decided by which of two punches thrown at the same moment landed first.
Nor can 13 seconds tell you who was better over 25 minutes. Aldo's 18 straight wins over ten years are better evidence of his level than one exchange.
How we scored it
| Part of round 1 | MMA.SOCIAL | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The opening | McGregor | He landed the kick to the lead leg; Aldo landed nothing before the exchange. |
| The exchange | McGregor | His counter left landed before Aldo's right-left combination did, and it ended the fight. |
| The stoppage | Correct | Aldo was unconscious on the canvas; McCarthy stopped it after two hammerfists. |
| Result | McGregor by KO, 0:13 | No round was completed, so there is no score to give. |
There is no card to argue with, so the questions people ask are different: was the stoppage early, and was it a lucky punch? The first is easy. MMARising, theScore and the Irish Times all describe Aldo as out before McGregor followed him down. No referee lets that go on.
The second deserves an answer, because one punch in 13 seconds can look like chance. We do not think it was. Aldo came forward behind a right hand, the punch McGregor said afterwards he had expected. "I did say that the right hand would be his downfall," he said, in words NBC News, Yahoo Sports and the Irish Times all print, and: "What I say happens, happens," which Yahoo Sports, Fox News and the Irish Times all carry. A counter thrown as the other man commits is timing, not luck. What is fair to say is that 13 seconds settled the title and nothing else. It did not prove McGregor would have beaten Aldo over five rounds, and Aldo never got the rematch that might have answered that.
What happened next
McGregor talked about timing. "He's powerful and fast, but precision beats power and timing beats speed," he said, as UFC.com prints it; theScore, Sky Sports and Fox News have the same "precision beats power and timing beats speed", while ESPN's version has no "and". "I feel for Jose," he said, according to ESPN and UFC.com, and "He deserved to go a little bit longer," as ESPN and Fox News both quote him. Aldo asked for another fight. "I think we need a rematch," he said, in words ESPN and UFC.com both print, and he said it had not really been a fight, which ESPN, UFC.com and the Irish Times all report in slightly different words. The UFC announced a crowd of 16,516 and a live gate of $10.1 million, as CBS Sports and ESPN both report.
The rematch never came, and McGregor never defended the featherweight title, as CBS Sports and Fox Sports both note. He fought Nate Diaz twice in 2016: he lost by submission in the second round at UFC 196 in March, his first UFC defeat, as theScore and the official record show, and won a majority decision at UFC 202 in August, according to Sherdog and the official record. At UFC 205 on November 12, 2016, he knocked out Eddie Alvarez in the second round for the lightweight title, which UFC.com, Fox Sports and the official record all show, and held two UFC titles at once.
Two weeks later, on November 26, 2016, the UFC announced that he had given up the featherweight title, as UFC.com and CBS Sports both report. Whether it was his choice is disputed: CBS Sports cites a report that he never agreed to it, and Fox Sports reports his coach John Kavanagh calling the move shortsighted. The UFC's title history says vacated, and we use that. Aldo, who had beaten Frankie Edgar for the interim title at UFC 200 on July 9, 2016, was promoted to undisputed champion the same day, as UFC.com and CBS Sports both report.
The official record has no second fight between them. Max Holloway, whom McGregor had outpointed in August 2013, took the title from Aldo at UFC 212 in June 2017 and beat him again that December, as UFC.com's title history and the official record show. Aldo's last UFC fight was a decision loss to Aiemann Zahabi at UFC 315 in May 2025, according to theScore and the official record. Holloway also ended McGregor's comeback: at UFC 329 on July 11, 2026, McGregor's knee gave way early and Holloway won by TKO at 1:09 of the first round, as UFC.com and the official record show.
The verdict
McGregor vs. Aldo is not a disputed result. No judge was needed, the stoppage was correct, and the punch was a counter to the attack McGregor said he expected, not a stray shot. It ended a ten-year unbeaten run and is still the fastest finish in a UFC title fight. What it did not settle is who was better over five rounds, and that stayed open because the two never fought again. On the night, McGregor's left landed first, and that was the fight.
Full fight stats: Aldo vs. McGregor. The rest of the night: UFC 194. More: the most title fights in UFC history.
Sources
- UFCStats round-by-round statistics (scrape_ufc_stats mirror)
- UFCStats fight results, method and referee (scrape_ufc_stats mirror)
- Sherdog - McGregor KOs Aldo in 13 seconds, unifies featherweight crown at UFC 194
- Sherdog - UFC 194 play-by-play
- Sherdog - Preview: UFC 194 Aldo vs. McGregor
- Sherdog - Beating the Odds: UFC 194
- Sherdog - Aldo withdraws from UFC 189; McGregor meets Mendes for interim title
- Sherdog - Jose Aldo fight record
- Sherdog - McGregor takes majority decision off Diaz in UFC 202 rematch
- ESPN (Brett Okamoto) via ABC7 - McGregor claims title with record 13-second KO of Aldo
- UFC.com - UFC 194 main event results
- UFC.com - UFC 194 post-fight bonus recap
- UFC.com - UFC featherweight title lineage
- UFC.com - McGregor vacates featherweight title, Aldo new undisputed champion
- UFC.com - By the numbers: fastest finishes in title fights
- UFC.com - UFC 329: McGregor vs. Holloway 2 results
- theScore - McGregor claims featherweight title with record-setting win over Aldo
- theScore - Diaz submits McGregor in the second round at UFC 196
- theScore - Aldo appears to retire after UFC 315 loss to Zahabi
- Sky Sports - McGregor wins in 13 seconds
- Sky Sports - Aldo withdraws from McGregor clash with rib injury
- Sky Sports - McGregor takes Aldo's belt at the end of the world tour
- NBC News - McGregor knocks out Aldo in 13 seconds
- Fox News - McGregor knocks down Aldo in 13 seconds to win the featherweight belt
- Fox Sports via Fox News - White on McGregor giving up the featherweight title
- Yahoo Sports - Conor McGregor calls his shot in the biggest fight of his life
- The Irish Times - McGregor knocks out Aldo in 13 seconds
- Bleacher Report - Aldo vs. McGregor results and reaction
- Bleacher Report - Technical breakdown of Aldo vs. McGregor
- Bleacher Report - Aldo vs. McGregor odds and predictions
- Bleacher Report - Mendes on McGregor's belt stunt
- CBS Sports - Five things to know about McGregor vs. Aldo
- CBS Sports - UFC 194 live gate and attendance
- CBS Sports - McGregor relinquishes the featherweight belt, Aldo new champion
- MMARising - UFC 194 live play-by-play and results
- LowKick MMA - UFC 194 post-fight bonuses
- Philstar - McGregor ends Aldo's decade-long reign with one punch
- Yardbarker - McGregor predicted how he would KO Aldo
- Guinness World Records - Fastest UFC title fight victory
Questions
Who won McGregor vs. Aldo?
Conor McGregor, by knockout 13 seconds into the first round at UFC 194 on December 12, 2015. He unified the UFC featherweight title and ended Jose Aldo's run of 18 straight wins, which went back to November 2005.
How long did McGregor vs. Aldo last?
13 seconds. It is the fastest finish in a UFC title fight, one second faster than Ronda Rousey's win over Cat Zingano at UFC 184 in February 2015.
What were the scorecards for McGregor vs. Aldo?
There are none. The fight ended 13 seconds into the first of five scheduled rounds, so no round was scored. On the official count McGregor landed 5 of 6 significant strikes and Aldo 1 of 3.
How did McGregor knock out Aldo?
Aldo came forward with a right hand and a left hook. McGregor slipped the right and landed a counter left on Aldo's jaw, then two hammerfists on the ground before referee John McCarthy stopped it at 0:13.
Was McGregor vs. Aldo a lucky punch?
We do not think so. Aldo was caught by a counter to the right hand McGregor said he had expected, which is timing rather than chance. The 13 seconds did not prove who was better over five rounds, though, and the two never fought again.
Did McGregor and Aldo have a rematch?
No. Aldo asked for one, but McGregor never defended the featherweight title; he fought Nate Diaz twice and won the lightweight title, and in November 2016 the UFC announced he had vacated the featherweight belt. Aldo was promoted to champion and lost the title to Max Holloway in 2017.
