What can we say about UFC fighter Conor McGregor, A young man from Crumlin who took the worlds biggest MMA organisation by storm just over 5 years ago?
5 years doesn’t seem like a long time when discussing McGregors meteoric success. He became one of the most famous athletes in the world in that short time.
However, after his disgraceful antics since he lost to Floyd Mayweather, public opinion has changed.
As everyone alreasdy knows by now,Conor McGregor stormed a media day for UFC 223 almost a month ago with approximately 20 other people.
The incident was recorded by almost everyone there. Footage shows McGregor try to throw a guard rail at a bus that his rival Khabib Nurmagomedov was on. This was in retaliation to an incident a few days before when Khabib (I am really not arsed typing out his second name every time) confronted and slapped Mcgregors teammate, Artem Lobov, in a Brooklyn hotel.
Before we get into this incident however, lets look at McGregors other antics since he fought Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match last August leading his popularity to decrease among many of his fans.
21st of October 2017- UFC Fight Night Poland
This was the first time he returned to the public eye since he lost to Mayweather, making a reported $100 million in the process. He went to Gdansk to to support his friend and teammate, Artem Lobov. As Lobovs fight progressed, McGregor became more animated on the sideline and began to shout instructions to him, which is illegal as he is basically working as an extra cornerman for his teammate.
The ref officiating the fight, Marc Goddard, noticed this and stopped the fight and told McGregor to sit back down. Lobov lost the fight that night.
Directly after the fight, footage emerged of McGregor consoling Lobov as they walk backstage. McGregor is shown calling Lobovs opponent a ‘Faggot’ 3 times as they walk back to the changing room.
Conor got a lot of shit for this, having to go as far as to apologise on the Late Late show. Not only did McGregor have to say sorry on national television, but also had to sit and talk to Ryan Tubridy for 20 minutes, which many would see as torture.
10th of November 2017 – Bellator 187
Only a few weeks later, McGregor was in the middle of another incident, this time in the 3 arena in Dublin. Another of McGregors teammates, Charlie Ward, was fighting at this event. Ward won his fight, and McGregor jumped over the walls of the cage to celebrate.
The ref who officiated this fight happened to be the same as the one who reffed the Lobov fight in Poland. McGregor already had a history with this ref, so when he tried to get Conor out of the cage, McGregor pushed him and struck another official on the way out.
It was a shitshow. Many people on social media believed he was on something that night, while others just admitted he acted like an idiot . Whatever his reasons, it was not the smartest thing to do.
5th of April 2018 – UFC 223 Media Day
It had been a while since we saw anything very news-worthy from McGregor. He rented out Funderland for a day which he posted all over Instagram and his sister got to the semi finals of Dancing with the Stars, but other than that there was nothing really happening.
He hasn’t fought in the UFC since winning the lightweight belt against Eddie Alvarez in November 2016. It seems like he had no interest in defending it, but when news broke that the main event this weekend in Brooklyn would mean he would be stripped of his lightweight belt, he began to pipe up.
When footage emerged of Artem Lobov (This guy again) being confronted and slapped by fellow Russian Khabib, McGregor flew over to New York with his crew to confront his rival.
There is footage of Conor and his crew being let into the Barclays center and more footage of the car park, where he is seen attempting to throw a guard rail and anything else that wasn’t pinned to the ground.
It has been reported that McGregor has been charged with three accounts of assault and one charge of criminal mischief by the NYPD. Some fighters were hospitalised after the incident who actually had nothing to with the problems between McGregor and Khabib.
He is going to be sued beyond belief. That 100 million dollars he made last august will become a substantially smaller amount after this. He will have fines to pay to the UFC, the New York fighting commission, and will also have to pay for the lost earnings by the fighters who have been pulled from Saturday’s events due to injury. The bus company will probably sue him too. There will be a long list of people looking to get a bit of money after this mess, and rightly so.
His ego is clearly out of control. It was a complete overreaction to a relatively small altercation. The UFC is becoming more and more like WWE with the drama outside of the cage. This will definitely not be the last we hear of this story either. McGregor will soon realise that money can buy you many things, but not the self-awareness that you are acting like a moron.
John McAuliffe