Conor McGregor: I Bring A Whole Nation of People Behind Me
UFC featherweight prospect Conor McGregor made a statement in his UFC debut this April, knocking out Marcus Brimage in spectacular fashion to get the hype train rolling quickly. There’s a good deal of justification behind the highly touted fighter’s media attention, because in addition to being highly skilled, he’s also poised to become the MMA face of Ireland.
Landing a Bisping-esque role would be absolutely huge for McGregor, and he’s going to waste no time and pull no punches to get there. A former multi-division Cage Warriors champion, McGregor wants to fight the best immediately. For now, he’ll have to settle on Max Holloway at the August 17th UFC Fight Night in Boston. The large Irish-American contingent of fans will be there to cheer him on, and you can bet it’ll be with a good amount of enthusiasm behind it.
However, it sounds like McGregor is instead looking to the top of the division instead, telling Bloody Elbow his thoughts on last week’s UFC 163 bout between Jose Aldo and Chan Sung Jung:
“I watched the Aldo vs. the Korean Zombie fight, and I think you could put me in there tomorrow with either of them. If you think I wouldn’t trouble either of them, then you’re highly mistaken. Look, put me in there next time. I’ll bring a whole nation of people behind me. I’ll sell.
I know I’ve only had one fight in there, but guess what? I’m bringing more hype than everyone else combined.??I feel confident, I don’t fear either of those guys. I wasn’t impressed. It was basic. It wasn’t spontaneous, it wasn’t creative, it was one shot, one shot. It was something I looked at and I didn’t think, ‘these guys are ahead of me’, you know? I’m confident. I’m confident that my time is here. My time is now.”
Some may deem these as some incredibly brash words from a fighter who has proven preciously little in his UFC career thus far, and it’s never safe to look past any opponent at this high level. But that doesn’t seem to bother McGregor one bit, who also voiced his strong opinion of his streaking divisional rival Cub Swanson:
Someone wrote, ‘I’d love to see Cub and Conor fight down the line.’ And Cub wrote back ‘yeah, I think that fight will happen.’ It escalated a little bit from there. I get these kind of tweets every day, ‘I want to see Conor fight this guy, or that guy.’ I’m sure all the guys on the roster get the same tweets. He wrote back to it, and I responded, ‘Yeah well, we’ll see’ blah blah blah. I don’t give a shit. I don’t give a shit about Cub, you know what I mean? ?
McGregor seems to have an abundance of energy about him right now, and for good reason. A big showing in Boston will give him the adoration of a ton his Irish-American fans, and it seems he has a mutual respect for them as well. With another spectacular knockout, he could be looking at a top-ranked opponent for his next bout.
The Irish knockout specialist has a huge opportunity coming his way in one week, one that most fighters will never be presented with. Should he be looking forward to the top names before his fight with Holloway has begun?
