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Official Conor McGregor thread (part 4) *Updated Warning in 1st Post Re:Boxing match

Axwell

Official Conor McGregor thread (part 3) *Updated Warning in 1st Post Re:Boxing match
The last thread was nearing the 10k post limit so here's part 4.

The same rules as the last thread apply here. People seem to have strong opinions either way when it comes to McGregor and threads here tend to get a bit heated from time to time. Please keep it civil and discuss all things Conor in a mature way.

Any name-calling, trolling, baiting, or being a general ass-hat will earn you a ban from the thread and possibly the forum.
If you have an issue with a post, please use the report post function.

Any off topic posts will be deleted.
Any "Do you even train Bro?" or "I'm an mma fan longer than you" type posts are not permitted either. They only make you look like a fool and as a result, everyone hates you. Yes everyone.

**Upate with Mayweather vs McGregor announced**

Lads consider this the one and only warning - big fight with a lot of hype around it. It brings new fans to the forum as well as the regulars so try and get along. Any trolling or nonsense and people will find themselves on a break from the forum and that applies to everyone.

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Ultimate Seduction

calabi yau wrote: »

was turning off him during Mayweather promo stuff, now he's confirmed himself as a tosser, I think Tony Ferguson will have the measure of him if Conor is not stripped of the belt before then after getting a lengthy ban. UFC need to make sense of that division like they are trying to do at middleweight

Less than a week after a welterweight who was retired for 4 years fought for the middleweight belt while the interim champ watched. The man who won it refuses to confirm if he'll ever defend it. Yep loads a sense in the middleweight division..

Outlaw Pete

glasso wrote: »

Are you seriously trying to argue that this was a planned McGregor pr gig? Seriously.

Conor absolutely planned it.

He had just been chastised by Goddard in Poland and also in the press afterwards (note the emboldened):

"Conor was basically acting like a fourth cornerman. Walking around the cage side wherever and whenever he wanted.

"When Fili took down Artem, Conor was right there. That’s simply not fair and not allowed.

"I won’t have it. He can’t do as he pleases.

"If Conor had stood up, stayed at his seat, then he could have shouted till his heart's content.

"That’s what he’s supposed to do. But what he simply cannot do, what he is not allowed to do, is approach the cage at any point and as I say act as the fourth corner."

He's right of course but I think the tone of those comments would have riled Conor and he'd without question have wanted to do something in response to those comments...... and he did, and Goddard knew it too I'd say.

calabi yau

Ultimate Seduction wrote: »

Less than a week after a welterweight who was retired for 4 years fought for the middleweight belt while the interim champ watched. The man who won it refuses to confirm if he'll ever defend it. Yep loads a sense in the middleweight division..

I said trying, Dana says GSP fights Whitaker, it's in the contract

Fall_Guy

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

Conor absolutely planned it.

He had just been chastised by Goddard in Poland and also in the press afterwards (note the emboldened):

He's right of course but I think the tone of those comments would have riled Conor and he'd without question have wanted to do something in response to those comments...... and he did, and Goddard knew it too I'd say.

If thats the case its even more of a dick move than if it was heat of the moment exuberance or coke-fuelled madness....how can you really look at the incident and defend it in any way, shape or form?!

Valmont

Why's he calling the ref a 'rat'? Hanging around with the Byrnes and Kinahans too much it seems!

Paully D

glasso wrote: »

He posse of tools were like love hate extras

The professional bag carriers.

torrevieja

Gamb!t

calabi yau wrote: »

was turning off him during Mayweather promo stuff, now he's confirmed himself as a tosser, I think Tony Ferguson will have the measure of him if Conor is not stripped of the belt before then after getting a lengthy ban. UFC need to make sense of that division like they are trying to do at middleweight

Hopefully,I'm going to enjoy him eating some humble pie and getting a well deserved reality check.

dulux99

I went to the film the other night in the cinema and it reminded me of how much emphasis he put on the "small circle" he surrounded himself with around the time of UFC 189.

It's only natural but it seems like with every fight the circle has widened, culminating in the Mayweather fight where we saw all of his pals in every training shot."Jobs for the boys" mentality almost. I can't help but think that's a hindrance, hanging around with guys all year round, in and out of camp, who have no athletic influence on him.

threeball

Whoever gets him next I hope they snap his arm like a twig. His scumbag behaviour is escalating and he's an embarrassment to his country.
This was always his level and he covered it well enough for a while with the veil slipping every now and then but the arrogance has brought it all bubbling to the surface.
Be glad to be rid of his soundbites and those that repeat them like some sort of brainwashed cult member.

Mellor

Sweet Science wrote: »

I'd say he is on some comedown today . It will be interesting to see how this pans out . If not seriously disciplined he is now bigger than the sport

I mean Evra kicked a fan and was banned for a year . Dublins Diarmuid Connolly pushed a linesman and got a 3 month ban . Plenty of examples in other sports .

Both of those sports had overseeing bodies to dish out a ban. There is none here.

Outlaw Pete

Fall_Guy wrote: »

If thats the case its even more of a dick move than if it was heat of the moment exuberance or coke-fuelled madness....how can you really look at the incident and defend it in any way, shape or form?!

Make sense will ya.

I'm saying that it was planned to jump into the cage at the moment of victory... not that he planned what transpired.

Wheeliebin30

threeball wrote: »

Whoever gets him next I hope they snap his arm like a twig. His scumbag behaviour is escalating and he's an embarrassment to his country.
This was always his level and he covered it well enough for a while with the veil slipping every now and then but the arrogance has brought it all bubbling to the surface.
Be glad to be rid of his soundbites and those that repeat them like some sort of brainwashed cult member.

You would like to see someone get their arm smapped like a twig?

Stay classy mate.

Fall_Guy

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

Make sense will ya.

I'm saying that it was planned to jump into the cage at the moment of victory... not that he planned what transpired.

Again, if that is the case, I repeat, it is even more of a dick move than his actions being the result of impulsive exuberance....not sure what doesn't make sense for you there??

The only thing in this instance that doesn't make sense to me is your contention that it was a planned action on McGregors part, as it would fly in the face of his 'losers focus on winners, winners focus on winning' mantra....it would be petty in the extreme....now thats not to say you are wrong, but it only serves to paint him in a worse light if thats the case.

Would you claim that you haven't been defending his actions last night in this thread?

What part of my post wasn't making sense to you??

Jim Bob Scratcher

threeball wrote: »

Whoever gets him next I hope they snap his arm like a twig. His scumbag behaviour is escalating and he's an embarrassment to his country.
This was always his level and he covered it well enough for a while with the veil slipping every now and then but the arrogance has brought it all bubbling to the surface.
Be glad to be rid of his soundbites and those that repeat them like some sort of brainwashed cult member.

Feed him to Khabib

[Deleted User]

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

Conor absolutely planned it.

I doubt very much it was planned. It was reactionary, he was reacting to Goddard telling him to get the **** out. How can you plan that, what if Goddard hadn't seen him or done anything?

Though I do agree Conor probably has some long-simmering resentment towards Goddard. He didn't like being told to sit down at the recent Fight Night.

Considering Kavanagh's apparent friendship with Goddard (he is always fawning over him on twitter) I find his lack of condemnation to this incident particularly troubling. "Some ups and downs... on we go". He is the epitome of cod philosophy snake-oil salesmen. Always got a silly quote that he pulled from a self-help book but never says anything of substance or intelligence.

https://twitter.com/John_Kavanagh/status/917534640117829637

Lukker-

Mellor wrote: »

Both of those sports had overseeing bodies to dish out a ban. There is none here.

Was it not an ABC sanctioned event and the official he slapped a ABC commissioner?

I know they aren’t the commission, but they essentially set the rules. If they request punishment I think in most cases any Athletic commission listen. That said Conor’s the golden goose so that might well be ignored.

Lukker-

[Deleted User] wrote: »

."Some ups and downs... on we go". He is the epitome of cod philosophy snake-oil salesmen. Always got a silly quote that he pulled from a self-help book but never says anything of substance or intelligence.

https://twitter.com/John_Kavanagh/status/917534640117829637

Just as well he’s an MMA coach and not a poet or philosopher

Outlaw Pete

Fall_Guy wrote: »

Again, if that is the case, I repeat, it is even more of a dick move than his actions being the result of impulsive exuberance....not sure what doesn't make sense for you there??

You initially suggested I had said the incident was planned:

Fall_Guy wrote: »

If thats the case its even more of a dick move than if it was heat of the moment exuberance or coke-fuelled madness....how can you really look at the incident and defend it in any way, shape or form?!

Point is, just because I believe McGregor planned to jump the cage.... doesn't mean that I think he planned anything after that point... other than to try and impress the muppets he runs with that is.

Would you claim that you haven't been defending his actions last night in this thread?

Some of his actions were understandable, that's all I'm saying and even the actions that I would condemn, I'm not surprised by. Maybe I just see McGregor for who he is more than some. He's MMA's Tyson, people need to stop thinking he's it's Ali.

wonderfullife

dulux99 wrote: »

I went to the film the other night in the cinema and it reminded me of how much emphasis he put on the "small circle" he surrounded himself with around the time of UFC 189.

A few thoughts on this relating to his inner circle.

If you read John's book, there's almost a subtext throughout of how his relationship with Conor changed - with emphasis on 'changed' rather than any sense of 'growth'.

In the early chapters, there's stories of Conor thieving money and John going to his house to have it out and get him back to the gym to try stop him hanging around with the wrong people. Then there was the story of Conor & Cathal Pendred running up a huge room service bill in the hotel and trying to do a runner but John wasn't having any of it and made the taxi driver turn around and basically told the lads 'tough sh1t to go sort it'.

As Conor's fame and success grew, the whole dynamic seemed to do a 360.

Instead of John laying down the law, it seemed that Conor would do as he pleases and John would just follow along for the ride. Conor would suddenly show up to the gym whenever he felt like it as opposed to going to classes. Instead of having a key role in his next fight, he'd instead just get a text at 2am informing him they were on a flight in the morning.

The initial authority, influence and leadership John had as his Coach and Mentor seemed to slowly evaporate.

There's one thing that hasn't changed about Conor but has (seemingly) worsened - and that's his fragile ego and inability to accept criticism. In 'Win or Learn', there was the story of Conor refusing to do a video message for someone's wedding because the lad had once criticized Pendred in the past. In Wright Thompson's much-maligned article (the one where Crumlin came across like Compton), a paragraph stood out to me:

"McGregor, for all his bravado, can be fragile. Norman Mailer wrote about approaching Ali's psyche like you'd approach a squirrel. That's true for Conor too. "You got to be very cautious what you say around Conor," says striking coach Owen Roddy."

Now, if Owen is saying he has to pick his words very carefully around Conor, you'd have to imagine it goes for every one of them. I suspect they have good reasons for being afraid of criticizing him because I've often wondered why Tom Egan and, to a lesser extent, Chris Fields went from key members of the inner circle to borderline persona non grata, in Tom's case he's dropped a few hints that he wasn't afraid to give it to Conor straight.

This interview with Tom was revealing:

"Conor can be a bit of a pain in the hole to be honest with you. He can be high maintenance at times but for the most part hes’s a good bloke. I have been involved with him obviously for years. I cornered him for his second fight in the UFC over in Boston and I have always been there for him. Anything he needed, I dropped everything, between the two Boston cards and his fight last year against Mendes. I spent the whole summer out there with him. I’m just focused (now) on me and my people."

When was the last time you heard the likes of Kavanagh, Lobov, Danis, Gallagher or Roddy say anything remotely critical of Conor, let alone he can be a "pain in the hole"?

The reality is if you criticize him you're probably soon on your way out of the inner-circle and kicked off the gravy train. I know for a fact certain high profile journalists are reluctant to say anything negative about Conor publicly because of the fear of being blacklisted.

The result of all of that is Conor has ended up surrounded by sycophants who tell him everything he does is brilliant. He has built a cult-like fanbase of people who believe his every move is some work of Machiavellian brilliance.

I'm reminded of Trump's tweet earlier this year. It was midnight Eastern Time and he tweeted:

"Despite the constant negative press covfefe".

To any sane person, it was clear he was trying to type "press coverage" and fell asleep mid-sentence but his cult sent out hundreds of thousands of tweets to argue it was a genius veiled attack on the "fake news" media and that "covfefe" was actually an amalgam of two words and that only those within his fanbase understood what he meant. We saw similar nutty explanations of last nights events when the reality was plain to see.

The similarities between Conor and Trump are painfully obvious. On the inside and on the outside, both men are surrounded by people telling them they are amazing and everything they do is a stroke of genius.

If Conor's own coaches are publicly admitting they're afraid to criticize him, you have to wonder will the fight game evolve past Conor just like it did to Ronda? The similarities between those two are also there for all to see in the sense they both heavily relied on a specialty within fighting (left hand and armbar) and both saw explosions of fame.

There were warning signs for me in the lead-up to the Floyd fight in that nobody seemed willing or able to tell Conor his rowing technique was terrible and that he risked injuring himself. Nobody seemed able to tell him to wear a helmet when cycling or put on a seat belt when driving. Most importantly, nobody seemed able to tell him to cut out these benders he goes on.

A Coach with authority and leadership in any sport would be telling his players to cut this sh1t out. It wouldn't have mattered to Sir Alex Ferguson if it was Roy Keane or an under-17 prospect, if they were caught out on a bender or driving without a seat belt filming a selfie, he'd have the riot act read to them.

Kavanagh and Roddy shrug their shoulders and count their money.

Within the fight, there were further warning signs because Floyd did *exactly* what Nate did - shell up and walk him down. I didn't see any progression or improvement in how he dealt with that forward pressure and I'm extremely dubious we will see any if Ferguson starts to walk him down at the end of Round 2.

How can you improve a clear flaw in your game if your own coaches are telling you everything you do is brilliant, your fans make excuses for everything and everyone is either afraid or too wrapped up in a bubble to give an honest criticism? I've read and heard interviews post-fight from Roddy and Conor and they both seem to genuinely feel they were dominating Floyd from a skill perspective and would win a rematch.

There's a stench of delusion surrounding SBG's analysis of that fight because as proud as I was of his performance, any sane person saw Floyd only threw SIX punches in the first. Of course Conor dominated skill wise in those early rounds, because his opponent wasn't far off putting his hands behind his back, lighting up a cigar and dancing a jig around the ring.

TL;DR - Surrounding yourself with a small circle of people is well-and-good but if you end up with nobody willing to give you a kick up the arse and nobody you're prepared to take it from, you may as well have a million people in that circle because none of them will be able to help you grow and evolve as a fighter and as a person.

There will come a point where Conor's left hand and impeccable timing isn't enough, just like there came a point Ronda couldn't steamroll her opposition with armbars. I believe we are at that point now and Conor has the choice which road he walks down. I feel he has the aptitude to make adjustments and to grow as a martial artist and win three or four more big fights and be remembered as one of the best. But...

He needs someone willing or able to tell him a professional athlete shouldn't be risking injury needlessly, a professional athlete doesn't need a dozen sycophants cheerleading him on a treadmill, a professional athlete doesn't need a double vodka and orange while doing a daytime interview with Sky News, a professional athlete shouldn't be up a treehouse out of his mind at 4am.

He needs someone to tell him that a father of a young child shouldn't be assaulting random people who were simply trying to their job and it's no example to set any child.

If I could give Conor only one piece of advice it would be this:

Ask yourself what you want Conor Junior to see when he types in "Conor McGregor" into google (or whatever is around) in ten years time. The top result could be an article looking back at the career of one the greatest mixed martial artists we've ever seen or it could be an article charting the implosion of a star who had the world at his feet and threw it all away.

He's the master of his fate but unless he makes changes he will be the architect of his own downfall.

EagererBeaver

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

Maybe I just see McGregor for who he is more than some. He's MMA's Tyson, people need to stop thinking he's it's Ali.

What does this even mean? Presumably intended as some sort of witty soundbite but is actually nonsensical rubbish.

Neamhshuntasach

LastLagoon wrote: »

State of anyone trying to play this down-same muppets posting King and post crowns under every Instagram and prob dream of offering up their girlfriends to Conor while they watch
Time must be getting closer to where tabloids turn on him and start publishing some of the stuff they are sitting on

They will eventually. Some good stuff that for whatever reason hasn't come to the surface yet. I've seen mad videos of him doing stuff that would get him investigated by police in the US. Never mind banned from any sport.

Neamhshuntasach

BillyBobBS wrote: »

That's a pretty serious allegation. You have proof of course?

Difficult to prove without video. Which do exist but a few nice pay days have kept them hidden. Also nobody would probably believe someone if they posted online on a forum like this and said they personally knew the very high standing citizen
who gets it from while in Dublin.

Jamiekelly

EagererBeaver wrote: »

What does this even mean? Presumably intended as some sort of witty soundbite but is actually nonsensical rubbish.

It clearly means McGregor is acting more like a thug with a chip on his shoulder (Tyson) rather than a thoughtful and insightful athlete (Ali). It's an easy comparison to make and not difficult to understand. What is nonsensical though is claiming it was intended as a soundbite when the definition of soundbite is "A short clip of speech or music extracted from a longer piece of audio, often used to promote or exemplify the full length piece." Typed words are not soundbites.

Neamhshuntasach wrote: »

They will eventually. Some good stuff that for whatever reason hasn't come to the surface yet. I've seen mad videos of him doing stuff that would get him investigated by police in the US. Never mind banned from any sport.

Care to share a link? If something hasn't come to the surface which is illegal for "whatever reason" then how did you manage to view it?

By the way I'm not defending him, I think McGregor is being a full blown clown now. Clearly the money has gone to his head and he thinks he deserves all the attention. Safe to say I'm no longer a fan. Maybe getting sparked clean out will reallign his ego and teach him some humility. If he keeps acting like this all the way to the Ferguson fight I'll be cheering for Tony. As for the whole John Kavanagh thing, surely his father and mother should be reigning him in or Dee. JK can't be responsible for everything a fighter in his gym does.

Outlaw Pete

EagererBeaver wrote: »

What does this even mean? Presumably intended as some sort of witty soundbite but is actually nonsensical rubbish.

Witty? No, I wasn't trying to be witty.

The point (which I felt was an obvious one) is that McGregor is often spoken about in the same breath as Ali (no wonder then the reaction when he steps out of line) but the truth is that it would be much more apt to speak about him in the same breath as Tyson, in the respect that it was Tyson that first brought the huge ppv numbers to the sport of boxing (second only to Mayweather) but along also with a hell of a lot of controversy and unpredictability.

John_D80

Jamiekelly wrote: »

It clearly means McGregor is acting more like a thug with a chip on his shoulder (Tyson) rather than a thoughtful and insightful athlete (Ali). It's an easy comparison to make and not difficult to understand.

Never fails to mystify me to see how people can so easily be led to conclusions like this about Ali. People tend to view the past through rose-tinted glasses.

Considering his behaviour lately, McGregor actually is a lot more like (the real) Ali than Tyson.

StringerBell

Only people like Dana White have, or would ever mention McGregor and Ali in the same breath.

dulux99

StringerBell wrote: »

Only people like Dana White have, or would ever mention McGregor and Ali in the same breath.

Why? Both men rose to the top of their respective combat sports with a mix of technical excellence and endless charisma. The comparisons are natural. People that act like the comparisons don't exist are burying their head in the sand. Ali kept his sh*t together far more capably than Conor however!

wonderfullife

Chael weighing in, saying Conor could be in deep sh1t.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbY1YCXBoJU

gilmour

One thing just keeps coming back to me anytime i hear about controversy with Conor, and its the hour or two hour long rant by Paulie in the summer over the whole spar session. Not about the spar itself because that was a torturous episode, but when he talked about McGregors character and his crew's behaviour around him.

He was absolutely bang on the money from everything i see.