Conor McGregor Says A Childhood Fight Led Him To MMA

Conor McGregor (17-2) is scheduled to fight Chad Mendes (17-2) for the interim UFC featherweight championship bout at UFC 189 next Saturday night and appeared on various ESPN shows earlier this week to promote the pay-per-view event.

During his appearance on ESPN’s Highly Questionable TV show, McGregor told a story about as a kid getting beat up by the neighborhood crew of older guys.

“Usually it’s to do with women, as I’m sure you know,” McGregor told ESPN’s Highly Questionable. “Growing up as a young kid I was the younger kid and I was going after this girl. She was maybe 15, 16 years of age. Her boyfriend was like 17 or 18. Him and his little crew were driving cars and everything and I was only a young kid, but I sneaked my way in there.”

McGregor would go on to say that he was beaten down by the group and took a beating.

“I was with the girl and we were walking up the street one night and the car pulled up in front of me and a big load of them jumped out and whooped my ass,” said McGregor. “I curled up in a ball and took my beating. I’d done nothing.

“For me, after that moment I thought to myself, ‘I’m going to really learn how to fight so if anyone ever jumps out of a car or jumps out in any situation they will never do it again.'”

The interview came to close after McGregor was asked how many untrained civilian males would it take for it to be a problem for him.

“I would clean four out pretty easily,” said McGregor. “Each one would take one shot. It depends. If you two came running at me I would eliminate you in less than 45 seconds.”

UFC 189 takes place on July 11, 2015, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event will be shown on pay-per-view, Fox Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.

UFC 189’s main event will be Chad Mendes vs. Conor McGregor for the interim featherweight title while the co-main event will be a welterweight championship between Robbie Lawler (c) and Rory MacDonald.