David Williams
This isn’t an act with Conor McGregor. This is who he is. Pumped up. Jacked up. Dressed up.
All stoked on bravado and loud nonsense and big dreams and even bigger payoffs. Forever defying the odds – that has been his unlikely professional fighting life.
“He walks into a room like he owns the place,” said Dana White, the UFC promoter who discovered McGregor and has benefited greatly from that discovery.
“And you watch, that’s what he’ll do on Saturday night. That’s what he always does. That’s why I think he’s going to win.”
There is a sense around McGregor as the days towards the multi-million dollar hybrid mega-fight build that he is more than steadfast in his belief he will defeat Floyd Mayweather in the first professional boxing match of his life. He is absolute about that.
And it’s not just McGregor believing or talking. It’s everyone around him. It’s cult-like almost. His team. His trainers. It’s group-think, without any cracks, no room for doubts or any doubters. This isn’t the normal scripted hyperbole of their game: They simply believe this is their time.
McGregor, 27, has convinced all of them that this is just the beginning of a brave new world of sport — $100 million here, who knows how many million later — the first boxing act in a story just beginning.
You can try and poke holes in what he says, in how he says it, and he looks right through you. Like you’re not there. You’re either with him or you don’t exist. There is no place for detractors. “Trust me,” he begins so many of his sentences with.
“Trust me on this, no one knows what’s coming.
“Trust me, watch me take over boxing.
“Trust me, I’m going to shock the world.”
Trust him, if you will.
“I’m going to box this man at his own game. That’s how much of a different level I’m on.”
He is on something, although not in a Jon Jones kind of way. It has all happened so quickly for him, really, this rise to world combat figure of prominence. McGregor has only fought 10 times for UFC, nine of them wins. But it was his opening night, in Sweden in 2013, where he left a lasting first impression.
The story has been well told by now. The week before the fight with American Marcus Brimage, McGregor needed an Irish welfare cheque of $235 to sustain himself. That would be the last time he needed government assistance of any kind.
His impressive first-round victory in Stockholm earned him the knockout-of-the-night prize — and with that a $60,000 bonus in his first night of UFC fighting. That felt like a lottery win back then for the apprentice plumber who managed to avoid the neighbourhood gangs as a teenager in the Crumlin area of Dublin.
It’s a high he’s never quite forgotten.
“To be honest, I didn’t know what was going on,” McGregor said. “I hear $60,000 and (at the time) I had nothing. And I’m thinking, what am I going to spend it on? Maybe a nice car and some suits or something, some custom-made suits. I don’t know … I’m making money here, I didn’t have money before this, you know … I was collecting 180 Euros a week off social welfare and here I am and I’ve got 60 Gs.”
And now, win or lose, he’s in the $100 million range from Saturday night’s purse. From welfare to wealthy, with a few stops in between.
White sees the comparison between that Swedish night and now. The dollars may be more extreme and life-changing, but it’s the attitude he references that impresses him. It’s the toughness. It’s the resilience. It’s taking centre stage impolitely and grabbing control.
McGregor wasn’t brought to UFC to become a star: He was brought to fill out a fighting roster. He made himself a star. He made himself impossible to ignore. He challenged the system and the pay grade. And he pushed back in a most unconventional way.
“Conor McGregor is a helluva fighter,” Mayweather said in a rare moment of respect. “He’s a tough competitor. It’s going to be blood, sweat and tears Saturday night.”
What he doesn’t say is what everyone wonders: Can McGregor box?
You can be tough, you can be motivated, you can be prepared, you can be in great shape, but if you can’t fight on Mayweather’s terms, you have no chance to win. That’s the conventional wisdom here.
McGregor’s entire life is an affront of sorts to conventional wisdom.
“He’s a beaten man,” McGregor said of the 40-year-old Mayweather. “He will not be able to take the ferociousness that I come with. I’m very confident. I have more skills in many areas and a true martial artist. I can adapt to any situation.
“I’ve made it through shin bones that bounces off my cheekbone. That’s the game I come from. They can say what they want, but I’ve come through a lot tougher than any of these fighters he’s faced have gone through.
“I’m going to break this old man. Trust me.”
