Massive opportunity for McGregor
Featherweight title challenger silences the doubters with work in the cage
Conor McGregor walks around the Ultimate Fighter training facility, a throng of media following him from station to station.
He stretches, does a little yoga and hits a bag, briefly engaging the group watching his every move.
As McGregor steps into the cage to work on his striking with longtime coach Owen Roddy, the rest of the SBG Ireland team that has accompanied the featherweight title challenger to Las Vegas, 10 weeks ahead of his championship fight at UFC 189, scatter throughout the gym.
Two years earlier, on a muggy day in Dublin, the same cast of characters milled about the old SBG gym. Aisling Daly, still a few years away from being part of the historic 20th season of The Ultimate Fighter, slides out the door. Cathal Pendred, then the Cage Warriors welterweight champion, emerges from the change room. On Saturday, he’ll look for his fifth straight UFC victory against John Howard.
McGregor careens into the hallway, a bundle of energy and exuberance, just a handful of weeks removed from collecting the $50,000 UFC Knockout of the Night bonus — which he lobbied for after his firstround stoppage win over Marcus Brimage in his UFC debut, shouting “Dana White — 50 G’s, baby!” He’s already late for a photo shoot to accompany a story in UFC Magazine, but he still wants to stop at Louis Copeland’s to pick up new threads.
Rushing through the tight streets of his hometown, his attention flitting to everything passing by and the questions coming at him from the back seat, McGregor says that he’s always been a rock star in his own head and that it’s only now that people are starting to catch on. Later, inside the upscale clothiers, as McGregor tries on an assortment of suits and bow ties, he says becoming a UFC champion is a question of when, not if.
That could very well be on Saturday night, when the talented Irish standout faces Chad Mendes for the interim featherweight title in the main event of UFC 189.
While Jose Aldo’s injury changed the stakes of this fight, it’s still a massive opportunity for the burgeoning superstar, who hasn’t changed much — if any — in the two years since we last shared the same space.
“It’s like when you turn middle age — you look in the mirror one day and it’s, ‘That’s at the happening,’ ” offers John Kavanagh, McGregor’s longtime head coach and a man who saw greatness in the 26-yearold fighter before anyone else, McGregor included.
“This has been a similar thing; it’s not overnight.
“I genuinely saw for seven years a gradual growth, really blowing up on the regional scene (to where) a Cage Warriors weigh-in was getting more attention than a UFC fight night. A weigh-in. So it wasn’t like I woke up one morning and suddenly everyone was banging on the door for an interview. It was a gradual process and one that was very easy to predict.”
While some fans want to say that McGregor’s rise up the ranks is a result of his larger-than-life personality, or has been expedited by the UFC and that he’s undeserving of the championship opportunity that awaits him this weekend, the truth is that as good as he is on the mic, McGregor is even better in the cage.
He’s turned in dominant performances against Diego Brandao, Dustin Poirier and Dennis Siver, as well as grinding out a victory over surging young contender Max Holloway.
He talks a big game, but to date, McGregor has backed up everything he’s said, including arriving at the top of the featherweight division with impressive quickness.
McGregor often credits his rise to staying true to the team that has always been with him, but Kavanagh chalks it up to the effort that takes place in the gym and how that has transferred over to influence the group’s approach to everyday life.
“In fighting, the most important thing is to make uncomfortable situations comfortable,” says Kavanagh. “Put yourself in uncomfortable situations in the gym time and time again, until they become comfortable. The way our life has gone, the abnormal has become normal.”
It’s also gone according to the plan McGregor laid out two years ago, when he was just a single fight into his UFC career; an up-and-coming prospect with loads of potential to most, but a burgeoning superstar in need of an opportunity to shine.
And where does the charismatic and engaging Irishman see himself in another two years?
“I’ll continue to be at the top, that’s for sure,” he says confidently. “I’ll be 28 years old, with the game wrapped up in a little bow tie.”
E. Spencer Kyte is the author of Keyboard Kimura, at theprovince. com/mmablog. He’s in Las Vegas all week, so be sure to check him out on Twitter and Instagram (@ spencerkyte) for all your UFC 189 news, information and analysis. And head to Keyboard Kimura for a sampling of some of the best McGregor quotes from his recent UFC 189 press tour.