A badly broken leg. Screaming about Instagram DMs. Death threats directed at a fellow fighter, his wife and his four-year-old daughter. Did we expect the McGregor Era to end any other way? Can we be done now?
Two weekends ago, Conor McGregor broke his tibia and fibula at the end of the first round in the main event of UFC 264, a trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier where McGregor was dominated en route to losing the round 10-8 on two of three scorecards.
You never want to see somebody suffer a serious injury. But there is definitely karma in McGregor vowing to “kill” Poirier and send him out on a stretcher, only to be stretchered out himself. Or how about McGregor mocking submissions and saying only knockouts count, then attempting to lock in a guillotine choke out of desperation?
McGregor may be the biggest star in the world of MMA, but he isn’t good for the sport. His conduct immediately after the injury only reinforced that, as McGregor sat in the cage, bleeding and beaten, and threatened to kill Poirier and his wife in their sleep. McGregor also called Poirier’s wife a ho while screaming about DMs like a teenager. The fragility of a 32-year-old man doing this should be stunning, but it’s really not with McGregor.
After living through the horrors of Trump, you see the word “grift” a whole lot now. There’s no bigger gifter in the world of sports than Conor McGregor.[efn_note]Also makes sense that he is a fan of Putin and Trump.[/efn_note] His whole persona is a bunch of hyper-aggressive, phony, toxic crap, flaunting his wealth and talking insane trash while he hasn’t been able to back it up in the cage in five years. He has made no effort to improve his skills, he just talks louder. But the persona sells, so the UFC fuels it and allows his presence to dominate the sport.
The UFC is “The McGregor Show” – complete with advertisements for his whiskey during events – despite his only wins following his meteoric rise in 2016 being:
- Donald Cerrone in 2020, who has gone 0-5 with one no contest in his last six fights (McGregor put him at 0-3 in that streak); and
- A random elderly man in a bar.
Since becoming the much-ballyhooed “double champ” in November 2016, McGregor has gone 0-1 in boxing and 1-3 in MMA. He won the UFC Featherweight Championship in 2015 and was stripped of it since he decided to never defend it, but the UFC let him hold the belt for almost a year – long enough for the photo op with two belts when he won the Lightweight Championship. Oh and that belt? Stripped because he never defended it, instead doing a freakshow boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, where he lost by TKO.[efn_note]He also went full racist at a pre-fight press conference, yelling at Mayweather, “Dance for me boy!”[/efn_note] When he came back to the UFC, he got dominated by Khabib Nurmagomedov and choked out.[efn_note]McGregor’s pre-fight trash talk was full of anti-Muslim bile and mocking Nurmogomedov’s entire family.[/efn_note]
It has all been downhill from there. It’s almost like putting fighting second to cultivating his “Notorious” persona has negative consequences. For what it’s worth, that same persona should have had him tossed from the UFC years ago.
98% of McGregor fans likely don’t know of Paul Daley. 11 years ago at UFC 113, Daley threw a punch at Josh Koscheck after the final bell of their fight. UFC President Dana White was furious, fired Daley immediately and vowed that he would never fight in the UFC ever again.
McGregor should have been banned from the UFC after the 2018 bus attack before UFC 223. He threw a hand cart through the window of a bus full of fighters, getting glass in Ray Borg’s eye and cutting Michael Chisea’s face. The injuries to those fighters meant the cancelation of their fights, and McGregor’s teammate Artem Lobov was also pulled from the 223 card for his involvement. McGregor was also arrested. You read all that right: three fights were canceled, two fighters were injured and the company’s biggest star was arrested. Bad stuff, right? Well, rather than punish McGregor, the UFC ended up using footage of the incident in ads to promote the fight with Khabib!
Why the bus attack didn’t end McGregor’s career, I don’t know. Why Khabib and Conor were not banned for life over the post-fight riot following their UFC 229 bout, I don’t know.
McGregor has also had multiple sexual assault allegations and was arrested on suspicion of attempted sexual assault and indecent exposure, along with an arrest for hitting that old man in the bar. Paul Daley was small time. Isn’t it bad to have your biggest star embroiled in this kind of madness?
McGregor remains the sport’s biggest star because he’s an effective showman and sells the WWE-ripoff persona of Conor McGregor – the super-rich trash talker who put on electrifying fights back when Obama was still in office. The fact he doesn’t have the stamina to last more than most of the first round? Pshh come on. The fact he’s a loser who never defended a championship? What’s it matter, bro? Doesn’t even need a belt, bro! He’s crazy, bro! He’s such a badass, bro! Do you know how rich he is, bro?
It was surreal seeing the UFC dedicate significant airtime to discussing McGregor topping the Forbes list of highest-paid athletes in 2020. I get that this is supposed to show how far the sport has come, but the guy fought once in 2020. His money comes from his whiskey brand and endorsements, and who cares? As Nate Diaz said, “The fuck is this? The Money Channel?”[efn_note]Worth noting that while Conor has the reputation for being this great trash talker, Nate was absolutely on fire in the build to their first fight, from the hilarious and insane press conference, to the immortal “touch-butt in the park”/”the JV squad on my team could beat your team’s ass” exchange.[/efn_note]
And the post-fight stuff? First off, Joe Rogan is the tool to end all tools. After vowing to stop interviewing fighters who have been knocked out, he continues to do just that. Sitting on the ground next to an injured, distraught McGregor and allowing him to spew complete nonsense was a new low, even for Rogan. Makes for great TV, sure, but it also provides another opportunity for McGregor to make the sport look toxic and idiotic.
You would think the embarrassments would have piled up enough for McGregor that this huckster would quietly go recover and maybe focus on really training again. Nope. Following surgery, he took to the interwebs to say Poirier’s victory was “illegitimate” and that he would have won in the second round. His coach, John Kavanagh, said the same. McGregor then took to Twitter to post a picture of Poirier’s daughter along with threatening messages. The man is incapable of feeling shame. He also refuses to admit Poirier checked a kick and that is what ultimately hurt him, instead bizarrely claiming he went into the fight with a fractured shin (this has been debunked by a doctor).
Five years ago, McGregor seemed poised to go down as one of the greatest fighters. Instead, he’s headed for the list of greatest what-ifs. He is clearly surrounded by yes-men and toadies who don’t push him. The fact Kavanagh thinks the fight was going well calls to mind Ronda Rousey’s epic demise with an irresponsible coach. That’s dangerous. While McGregor’s actions cheapen the sport and will ultimately diminish his legacy, the fact his coach is even buying into the hype and is ill-equipping him means McGregor’s taking punishment that has long-term health impacts. But if he can make everybody lots of money right now, why worry about later?
Ultimately, though, is it really surprising the guy who talked his way into superstardom would eventually buy into his own hype, never advance his training or skills and come crashing down to earth? Conor McGregor certainly isn’t the first, but he is the latest. Now he is out until sometime next year – more time for the sport to pass him by while he tries to come up with new insults. Here’s hoping that in his absence folks start to realize the reality and the trash talk don’t quite line up.
Unsolicited Opinion 