When Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather enter the boxing ring in the not-too-distant future – and I bet they do – I’ll be in the McGregor corner hoping for a long bout with a clear outcome.
What I’m looking forward to just as much as the fight is everything that will go on beforehand. McGregor has a reputation as a trash talker but to me, that’s off the mark.
I’ve seen highlights of Muhammed Ali fights and old black and white footage of some of his interviews and I wish I was old enough to have seen then when they happened because it must have been incredible to hear someone talk like he did:
“I’m young; I’m handsome; I’m fast. I can’t possibly be beat.”
“If you even dream of beating me you’d better wake up and apologise.”
“I’m so mean, I make medicine sick.”
In a sport that is supposed to be full of boofheads, Ali must have been a breath of fresh air, a smart man in a fighter’s body. He said and did things that made you think.
Now, along has come another smart fighter in the shape of the diminutive Irishman, Conor ‘The Notorious’ McGregor, who can talk rings around his opposition and does.
At 28 years of age, the reigning UFC lightweight champion is, to use an Irish word, a craic. He’s all serious when he’s in the octagon and great fun when he’s out of it.
Of Nate Dias he has said:
“I dug the grave a little bit wider, a little bit longer for Nate’s skinny fat long body.”
“Anything over forty grand he owes me because that was his last paycheck.”
Of money and his UFC and mixed martial arts career he’s been quoted as saying:
“The main thing to succeed in this game is to either be me or fight me.”
“The only weight I care about is the weight of my [pay] cheques.”
With a fight against Mayweather, that paycheck could be nearing $100 million. Who knows, with McGregor’s gift of talking himself up, it could be even higher than that.
Whatever happens, McGregor is already a once-in-a-generation fighter who is being embraced by legions of fans around the world. Even if you think he’s just a smart arse little upstart, nobody can deny his incredible work ethic.
Our kids need more McGregors. More heroes. Real ones too. Not the fake ones they can see at the movies. They need to see that all the talk in the world doesn’t mean jack without effort. They need to see that you can be humble in victory and in defeat. They need to see that if at first you don’t succeed, you try, try again.
Let’s get ready to rumble! Pick a fighter and place your bets with PlayUp for great odds. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
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