Ask yourself ..would you want your kids to be like Conor Mcgregor?
WHY NOTORIOUS IS GIVING THE
IWAS in LA recently to interview a Hollywood star. But for a split second I thought I wasn’t going to be allowed in. “Sorry, I can’t permit you entry into the USA,” deadpanned the immigration officer.
Then, before I could open my mouth, he quipped: “Because you’re Irish – just like Conor Mcgregor!”
Bad joke aside, it was implicit this guy felt The Notorious One was giving our great little nation a bad reputation on the international stage.
For a long time I’d been hearing similar sentiments echoed much closer to home. A friend of mine, who grew up only a stone’s throw away from Mcgregor, has constantly forewarned me, “Conor is a lout”.
I initially paid no heed to it, presuming it was nothing more than your typical begrudgery attitude, which we Irish are sadly renowned for at times. But now I’m not so sure.
With a housing crisis and a dire homeless situation in Ireland, there’s something very crass and undignified about Mcgregor’s constant bragging about his obscene wealth, while others are literally starving on our streets.
“I’m 30 years of age, I’d say by 35, I’ll be a billionaire,” he claimed recently. Mcgregor is obviously a very rich man, but something tells me he’s not making as much dough as he’d like us to believe.
Let’s put Mcgregor’s claim into perspective here – both Ronaldo’s and Messi’s combined wealth doesn’t stack up to a billion. In fact, neither one has even reached the half billion mark yet.
Does Mcgregor really expect us to believe he’s a bigger money-spinner than these two global icons put together? Mcgregor is either living in a fantasy world, or is a spoofer – or both.
He also claimed to be the best fighter on the planet – but we know that’s not true after he was outclassed by Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Did you see the look of fear in Mcgregor’s eyes when he stepped into the cage to go man-to-man with the UFC lightweight world champion?
Like Mayweather did in his mockery of a boxing match with Mcgregor, you got the sense Khabib was holding back from Ko-ing him. Mayweather clearly didn’t stop Mcgregor in an early round because he wanted to give punters value for money. Every round Mcgregor lasted generated more income for both Mayweather and the networks who wanted to milk it for their sponsors.
Khabib, on the other hand, wanted his fight to last as long as humanly possible to punish Mcgregor for those deeply wounding insults. He wouldn’t be the first fighter to do so. Muhammad Ali once famously prolonged a fight, purposely going the full distance against his opponent Ernie Terrell because he was offended by a pre-match insult and wanted to inflict maximum damage. Ali even admitted he wanted to “torture him”. But Ali’s prowess during that bout was hailed by one leading American sports writer, Tex Maule, as a “wonderful demonstration of boxing skill”.
You could hardily describe Mcgregor versus Khabib as anything other than barbaric. There is absolutely nothing skilful about beating a man to a pulp in open-hand combat.
I know there’s some rules involved in UFC, but it’s hardily Marquess of Queensberry, is it? It’s more of a case of, “Forget skill – just inflict as much damage as humanly possible”.
It’s a blood sport. UFC is nothing more than a glorified version of brutal bare knuckle fighting. But instead of Travellers selling illegal DVDS of these underground fights, you have to pay top dollar to view it on TV.
UFC attracts some undesirable spectators. More than 50 Irish fans were refused entry to the US to watch the Mcgregor fight because they had