McGREGOR’S ROAD
Back in 1998, a slightly built 10-year-old boy, who had been nicknamed Snowball because of his white-blond pudding-bowl-cut hair, walked into the Crumlin Boxing Club in Dublin and made an immediate impression.
A bad impression. Because Conor McGregor, who would grow up to be the fighting machine taking on boxing legend Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas early on Sunday, was trailing mud all through the gym.
Retired head coach Phil Sutcliffe recalls: “Conor came in wearing muddy football boots, so we gave him a right telling off.
“He asked to join and we told him to get some forms from the office for his parents, who were outside. Instead of doing that, he started punching a bag. He still hadn’t taken off the boots so we roared at him.
“That was the Friday. He came back on the Saturday and almost every day for the next seven years.”
That hard work and determination made Conor a mixed martial arts legend and earned Snowball a new nickname – The Notorious.
His incredible £500million bout with Mayweather is billed as the richest fight in boxing history.
Mayweather, 40, is undefeated in his professional boxing career and a five-division world champion. Conor is a two-weight Ultimate Fighting Championship king but this is his first pro boxing match. He is the underdog but is still expected to earn £58million from the fight.
The trash-talking between Floyd and Conor in the lead-up to their fight has reached epic levels. And Conor’s former coach Phil would have given him a ticking off for that.
He says: “I don’t like the way Conor talks now. We’d never allow him to do that in the club. No one was allowed to curse, not even the coaches.
“Conor was never cheeky or lippy here but he did have the selfbelief he has today. He came here to win titles.”
Conor, 29, was named by Forbes as the world’s 24th highest-paid athlete, one place behind Usain Bolt.
When Conor was born on July 14, 1988, the midwife had prophetic words for his dad Tony and mum Margaret. Tony, 58, recalls: “His fists were clenched coming out of the womb, so he was ready to fight. The midwife said, ‘This fella is going to be a boxer’.”
Until the age of 10, Conor was football mad. But he took up boxing so he could defend himself against
Conor had the selfbelief he has now. He came here to win titles PHIL SUTCLIFFE FORMER COACH RECALLS PROTEGE
school bullies. Conor has said: “When I was really young, I felt like I needed to be able to defend myself. So I thought, ‘I’m going to go and train, so if anyone says anything to me they’re going to know about it’. That’s how I started.
“I emptied my books from my school bag and only carried the weight off a dumbbell. I always walked home with the bag a little bit open, ready to go, in case anything happened.
“I’d plan what would happen if I came across any bullies. I had little routines in my head. I wanted to hit them enough so I could get away and get myself to safety.
“I didn’t care about sport then and I still really don’t. I didn’t get into martial arts to be the All Ireland Champion or World Champion. I got into it so people would say, ‘This guy is doing a bit of training, we’ll just leave him alone’. “Turns out I was good at it.” When the family moved to Lucan, South Dublin, 12-year-old Conor met new friends at Irish-speaking school Coláiste Cois Life, including Tom “The Tank” Egan, who piqued his interest in mixed martial arts.
Tomas Ó’Donnagain, now school principal, was Conor’s careers adviser back then. He says: “Conor was always talkative but we didn’t see the backchat we see now.
“Tom Egan was more into martial arts than Conor at the time and the pair of them used to smell out the