LITTLE ROOM FOR A BRASH CONOR
McGregor eyes the next level but the future may hold...
‘He makes mistakes and says things he shouldn’t say’
THE Conor McGregor effect was clear for all to see on O’Connell Street last Wednesday evening. There were hundreds of overly-excited fans who stood in the perishing cold for hours, simply for the thrill of having their hero strut past them on the red carpet.
A few hours later, as the UFC superstar was celebrating with family and friends following the world premiere of his documentary, Conor McGregor: Notorious, the Conor McGregor effect was also on TJ Dillashaw’s mind, ahead of his bout against Cody Garbrandt in Madison Square Garden tonight for UFC 217.
‘He has just become a tool since he won the belt,’ Dillashaw said of his opponent. ‘He has completely changed who he is. Before he was a respectable person who was professional about things. But now, it is this new Conor McGregor effect that everybody wants to be flashy and crazy.’ Ouch!
In the space of a few hours, here was a snapshot of just how polarising a figure McGregor is. You either love his brash bravado or are repelled by it. Even within the sport he now bestrides like a giant, he divides opinion.
No Irish sportsperson has ever enjoyed the level of fame and celebrity that McGregor now has. Not Roy Keane. Not even Rory McIlroy. Last night, he delivered his apology for using a homophobic slur against Andre Fili via The Late Late Show, but did so in a pre-recorded interview (a privilege generally afforded to luminaries such as Hillary Clinton).
Here is an Irish athlete that has reached the summit of his sport within a few years. And yet, many find it hard to warm to the story even when there is plenty within it that it is difficult not to admire. The early days were spent scraping around in a gym when the idea of fighting in Las Vegas, never mind meeting squaring up to Floyd Mayweather, was a flight of fantasy.
Eoin Roddy, his strike coach, has been with him every step of the way. On Wednesday evening, he recalled the early days.
‘We just fought very hard and dedicated our life to it. We passed around gear. If you didn’t have MMA gloves, you got a lend of them. He came from nothing and worked very, very hard for it. The whole team gave their life to the sport and we are starting to reap the rewards. It is great to see.’
Roddy is an articulate and smart individual and he knows the value of a rags-to-riches narrative in modern sport. And as John Kavanagh, head of the Straight Blast Gym and McGregor’s coach, also pointed out on Wednesday night, this is the story of ‘a kid from a small island who took on the world and whooped everybody.’ Hard not to get behind that sort of story.
And it didn’t go in a straight, upward arc for McGregor. He suffered disappointments, both early in his career and as late as last year in the UFC. And with each defeat, Roddy says, he came back stronger.
‘Early on in his career after he came back following his second loss, that is when I knew he was going places,’ Roddy explained.
‘After his first loss, he went missing. He was young and maybe he was doubting whether he even wanted to do it anymore.
‘He came back and went on a good winning streak and had another loss. I thought that maybe he would go missing again but no, he was back in the gym on Monday morning, ready to go and fix the problems. He went to Iceland and the rest is history. He came back from Iceland a different person with a different mentality and took on the world.’
IF McGregor’s story held firm to the Rocky theme, then it would be easier for the half of Ireland repelled by him to get on board. But Sly Stallone’s eponymous hero never spoke about dragging Apollo Creed’s head through the streets as McGregor said about Jose Aldo before their showdown in 2015. In an effort to shock and create headlines, McGregor always seems to go too far.
The homophobic slur on Artem Lobov’s opponent as he walked his defeated friend back to the dressing-room in Gdansk recently was just the latest mis-step. His defenders will claim that it has been blown out of proportion, that the begrudgers want to see him take a fall.
But it’s not that simple. The level of fame that McGregor now occupies means that he has to watch every single word he utters. Roddy understands that of his friend, even if the MMA superstar has yet to see it.
‘I know Conor, and I know the type of person that he is, and he would never want to hurt anyone, or hurt anyone maliciously. He is a good honest man, he makes mistakes and says things that he shouldn’t say. We are only human. You can only hold your hands and admit your mistake and move on. And that is what he does. Every time,’ Roddy explained.
But if McGregor is serious about becoming a player in the UFC’s monstrous promotional vehicle — McGregor promotions were a small-time player in the Fight of the Century with Mayweather — then he will need to tone down the language. And the insults.
The brash circus act and the braggadocio has taken him a long way in the sport.
But if he believes taking his career to the next level means entering the boardroom as an equal of Dana White, then the brash cockiness that has got him this far may have to disappear.
And if that is no longer part of the shtick, what will then be the Conor McGregor effect?