wonderfullife wrote: » Choices: Gave up an apprenticeship as a plumber as his heart wasn't in it. Gave up hanging around with the wrong crowd, getting into trouble, out partying non stop to dedicate himself to Martial Arts, at a time where there was no clear viable path to fame, fortune or even a career that would pay the bills. Character: Loyal to his friends, family and coaches. Same girlfriend now as when he hadn't a pot to piss in. Same coach now as when he walked in to the gym. Gave his sisters, mother and father new cars, paid their mortgages, invested in sisters business. Loyal to the same friends he had when he had nothing - the likes of Lee Dunphy now running TheMacLife for him. Values: Hard work, effort, determination. Donated to homeless charities in the run up to Xmas on a number of years. Gave a speech on bullying and suicide prevention. Gives countless time to his fans, always accessible for selfies and autographs. Win or lose in the Octagon shows humility, shakes his opponents hand and vows to come back as a better version of himself. I've never understand why people dislike or even hate Conor McGregor. What we have here is a success story. A guy who had nothing but a dream and has worked tremendously hard to try achieve it. A guy who could easily have let fame go to his head, forgetting the people who helped get him to where he is now. Would have been very easy upon hitting it big to dump Dee Devlin in favour of some B-list celeb model, dump John Kavanagh in favour of Jackson-Wink, dump SBG and move to ATT or Tristar, dump his school friends in favour of fairweather celeb mates etc. Instead he's shown humility, pride in his surroundings, pride in his family, pride in his roots. He still acts like a normal person. I bumped into his mam about 4 weeks ago and had a pretty long chat with her and it's easy to see why he'll always remain grounded beneath the promotional nonsense. If people want to hate him for the promotional cockiness he displays then that's a pretty lame reason to hate on someone - especially given he's in a sport where it actively pays to be promotionally astute. If people want to hate because he flashes his wealth with his nice cars, nice watches, nice suits etc then again a pretty lame reason. That's what we all work for. Whatever our job or career is, we work and if we work hard, rise the ladder in the office, get promotions, don't we all like to buy nicer clothes or be able to afford a nicer holiday or a nicer car, or to be able to treat our girlfriend/partner/family to nice things? Once you strip back all the showmanship what remains is a normal working class fella who has achieved success through hard work, determination and kept going through adversity - whether it was injury or defeat, he shrugged it off and kept going. To my mind anyway, the reason he's popular and a good role model for young people is that his message is pretty simple - knuckle down and work hard in something you love to do and if you make a success of it, ENJOY IT - and don't be ashamed to enjoy it. I can think of worse messages to give out to young people.
EagererBeaver wrote: » Congratulations, you managed to specifically ignore the opening comment that said "not referring to McGregor".
wonderfullife wrote: » ... If people want to hate him for the promotional cockiness he displays then that's a pretty lame reason to hate on someone - especially given he's in a sport where it actively pays to be promotionally astute. If people want to hate because he flashes his wealth with his nice cars, nice watches, nice suits etc then again a pretty lame reason. ...
[Deleted User] wrote: » Eh no, as someone who is constantly pushed in our faces, these are perfectly legitimate reasons to be sick of him. Imagine there was some English lad going around saying the stuff McGregor was saying. You would absolutely despise him.
finglashoop wrote: » Bisping 8 years ago
[Deleted User] wrote: » I don't know who that is. I'm speaking for a casual fan's point of view.
Mellor wrote: » So you judge people on their choices, character and values...but not McGregor.
Deleted User wrote: » I don't know who that is. I'm speaking for a casual fan's point of view.
EagererBeaver wrote: » Again, no, you're missing the point. The discussion was around whether being Irish obliges you to support McGregor and if you don't, whether begrudgery is the only possible explanation. My comment was referring to all people, perhaps I should have used the word "specifically". As in, "I value what people do and what choices they make, not what country they simply happened to be born in".
Mellor wrote: » I understood what you meant, I think the other poster did too. Which he why he gave you a list of character traits. His point was nothing to do with being his Irish. I just felt that in the context of what you had just his, your discarding reply made little sense.
Deleted User wrote: » Eh no, as someone who is constantly pushed in our faces, these are perfectly legitimate reasons to be sick of him.Imagine there was some English lad going around saying the stuff McGregor was saying. You would absolutely despise him.
Dave0301 wrote: You follow MMA and don't know who Michael Bisping is??
Zero-Cool wrote: » I might have misheard but did he say Usada tested him the day before and it was just piss in a cup? If so, was she just testing for something different. Tested 2 days in a row is mad, him and holly both highest tested this year with 14 times.
Deadst4r wrote: » I've a feeling he said nevada, as in the nevada state athletic commission maybe.
EagererBeaver wrote: » Congratulations, you managed to specifically ignore the opening comment that said "not referring to McGregor". I've plenty of time for him in a lot of instances and little time for him in plenty of others. The whole discussion (which you've completely failed to address in your admirable post) is whether or not it's obligatory to support someone simply because they're Irish.
JustTheOne wrote: » I'd say you're great crack at a party. Live and let live, once someone isn't doing harm to you what's the problem.
cloudatlas wrote: » I have gone off Nate a bit after he admitted on Conan that he goes in thinking, I might get knocked out but let's see how it goes. No athlete should ever go into competition with that attitude.
Bam Bam Mickey wrote: » It works for him.
jcd5971 wrote: » He stated he was a casual fan, nothing wrong with that. We all started somewhere
wonderfullife wrote: » I'm not a sports psychologist by any means but i'd imagine a lot of fighters internally go through this. As in telling themselves: "i could really get hurt, injured and embarrassed if i'm not on my A-game for this fight". Kind of a motivational tool to focus the mind. I'm sure, like every other fighter, he goes in fully believing he's going to win his fight. Otherwise he wouldn't make that walk.
cloudatlas wrote: » Yes but sports people don't say those kinds of things generally, you don't hear players, athletes say that they may lose.
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