LAS VEGAS — Out near the edges of Las Vegas sits Red Rock Resort and Casino, the sprawling, gleaming centerpiece of the Fertitta family’s locals-centric casino empire. It is all glass and stucco, rising against the backdrop of the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. The Fertittas own a series of Station Casinos, which generally look as though they have not received much of a face-lift since they were erected in a different era.
But Red Rock (and its sister Green Valley Ranch) is different. They are modern, sleek and a sheer pleasure to experience. They are also 25 minutes from the strip, which means no hustle and very little bustle. Tourism here is limited because of the distance, which gives Red Rock a quieter vibe. There are fewer walks of shame, but you take the good with the bad. There is also live bingo, which you most certainly file under the good.
Red Rock, then, was the perfect location for Monday’s low-key media event featuring UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo and brash challenger Conor McGregor. It was the second stop on the pair’s promotional world tour, which will swirl and whoosh around the globe until March 31, when it draws to its conclusion in the only logical place: Dublin, McGregor‘s hometown, a place where he can no longer walk down the street without being mobbed.
So it began in Rio de Janeiro and will end in Dublin, and in July, both men will return to Las Vegas for the most anticipated UFC fight of the year. On Monday, however, they were not fighting. They were not even together. They were kept as separated as the UFC’s public relations staff could keep them, with a 25-minute buffer stuck squarely between their separate interview sessions.
Aldo arrived first, sitting in a chair behind his UFC championship belt, which had mysteriously arrived before he did. The questions, as they usually do, centered around whether or not McGregor‘s antics were riling him up. They did not rile him up, he said, and were often amusing. Aldo said that he didn’t really believe McGregor deserved the shot he’s getting, but that he understands mixed martial arts is a tale of two separate entities.
“It’s half-fighting and half-talking,” Aldo said. “It’s part of the game.”
Aldo said that his camp, Brazil’s Nova Uniao, had recently realized that they needed to change things up and to do a better job of promoting their fights. And so Aldo had a bit of an edge when responding to questions, especially questions regarding McGregor‘s proficiency in the Octagon.
“I think all of the fights were more challenging than this one,” he said. “Urijah Faber was the one I trained a lot for, because I thought he was very dangerous.”
Aldo said he saw fear in McGregor‘s eyes when the two faced off for the first time in Rio. Of course, McGregor has said the same thing; it is possible that both men see what they want to see when they look at each other. But Aldo also said he was confident of a win.
“I study him. I know everything that he does,” he said. “I don’t know how I’m going to win, but I guarantee you I’m going to win.”
After the interview concluded, Aldo stood against a backdrop for photos, and then he departed, on to do the next thing in what must feel like a never-ending sea of responsibilities in promoting the fight.
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Twenty five minutes later, McGregor arrived wearing a t-shirt and jeans. He is one of the snazziest dressers in mixed martial arts and can usually be seeing wearing an expensive suit. Not today.
“It’s casual today, so we’re chilling,” McGregor said. He looked as though he’d just woken up and rolled out of bed, and that was probably the case; McGregor is known for sleeping well into the afternoon hours. On this day, he had good reason; he’d been up and out on the Las Vegas strip the night before, filming a spectacular Hollywood-style commercial for UFC 189.
“There was smoke and cameras. There were about 50 Irish lads behind me, screaming all the way down the strip. It’s madness,” he said. “I like to be grateful, to take it in and enjoy the ride.”
McGregor is a mostly avid participant of the UFC’s promotional machine. He has an acute understanding that fighting is about more than fighting; it is about business, and if you want better business, you have to do your part. That means filming commercials on the Vegas strip and endless interviews and waking up before you want to so that you can meet with a group of media in a different city each day.
He admits that all of this is probably easier for him than it is for Aldo, because Aldo has a wife and kids who are missing him back in Brazil. There are no such weights for McGregor at the moment. This is not to say it will always be this way. But for now, he is focused on his fighting career.
“I have a girlfriend. I have my family, of course,” he said. “But right now, I am married to the game.”
For McGregor, the game is about winning titles and making money. Aldo famously grew up in a Brazilian favela, even living in a cardboard box for a time. McGregor admits that things were not that difficult for him while growing up in Dublin, but his family was not rich by any stretch of the imagination. These days, he’s making plenty of money and could be on the cusp of making millions, but he says the money and the suites and the cars won’t slow him down.
“When most people start getting nice things, that’s when comfort sets in,” McGregor said. “But for me, I almost get more uncomfortable the more that comfort sets in, because I must push on and continue to get more. It must be constant.”
McGregor took the requisite shots at Aldo: at his chin, at his skill, at his size. These things are to be expected. He is building a fight, after all. And if it often seems like he’s playing a role, that’s because we were taught by Chael Sonnen that fighters who play a role can make a lot of money. But McGregor said he is no Sonnen. He said these are the things he truly believes, and he is just speaking his mind.
That may be hard to believe, but those close to him will tell you the exact same thing: This is McGregor. It is who he is, and he is like this all the time. And they say it makes him a pretty incredible human being to be around, because his confidence and his belief in himself are catchy.
Still, though, you have to think McGregor is just building the fight when he says he plans on knocking Aldo out within the first four minutes of the fight. He has made such predictions before, and they have sometimes come true. But it’s difficult to imagine McGregor doing the same thing to a man who has not lost a fight in ten years.
Still, it is intriguing, both in terms of fight promotion and the actual fight itself. McGregor is much larger than Aldo. He knows how to use his reach effectively. And despite those who say he is only where he’s at because of his mouth, McGregor is a very good fighter. Is he good enough to dethrone Aldo? Perhaps. We’ll find out this summer.
The interview concludes, and McGregor leaves. One of the UFC’s private jets is waiting at the executive field at McCarran International Airport, ready to shuttle McGregor to Los Angeles. Aldo is on another private jet. They’ll hit Los Angeles and Vancouver and Boston and end up in Dublin next week, and they will then go into training and start preparing for the fight.
They are two men drawn together, promoting together around the world, until they find themselves standing on their own in the Octagon, facing down the most important opponent of their respective careers.
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