LAS VEGAS — It was Conor McGregor versus the world.
The UFC interim featherweight champion was in rare form Friday at the Go Big press conference, blasting almost every potential opponent in attendance. There were 18 other UFC fighters on stage and McGregor found a way to offend the vast majority of them.
McGregor, the brash and talented Irishman, took shots at everyone from Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes to Donald Cerrone and Rafael dos Anjos. He even addressed the welterweights on stage like Matt Brown and Kelvin Gastelum. There was no hiding from McGregor’s verbal onslaught at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
When Aldo, McGregor’s opponent at UFC 194 on Dec. 12, had to leave early to catch a flight, McGregor turned to his peers.
“I’ll tell everyone up here 145 right up to 170, prepare for this fight, because I don’t think he’s showing up,” McGregor said. “It’s the opportunity of a lifetime you have, and don’t use [Mendes’] excuse of camps and all this bullsh*t. Stay ready, because he’s gone running.”
McGregor defeated Mendes via second-round knockout at UFC 189 in July after Aldo pulled out due to a rib injury two weeks prior. Mendes said Friday that he would like to fight McGregor again with a full camp. McGregor scoffed at him, telling Mendes he “hits like a f*cking strawweight.”
“You were curled up like a b*tch,” McGregor said. “I butchered your body. You couldn’t even put your hands up.”
“The Notorious” got started after one of the first questions of the day, interrupting an answer from dos Anjos, the UFC lightweight champion. Dos Anjos was asked whether he would like to fight McGregor rather than his next opponent, Cerrone. McGregor said of course he would.
“I can make you rich,” McGregor said. “I change your bum life. You fight me, it’s a celebration. When you sign to fight me, it’s a celebration. You ring back home, you ring your wife. ‘Baby, we’ve done it. We’re rich, baby. Conor McGregor made us rich. Break out the red panties. We’re rich, baby.’ So don’t say you wouldn’t take that fight, because you would take that fight like everyone else up here would take the fight against me if it was offered, regardless of belts or any of that sh*t. I’m the money fight and the male sh*t at all weight divisions. So f*ck everybody else up here.”
Dos Anjos told McGregor that fighting him would be “easy money.” Shortly after, Cerrone weighed in.
“Conor has no right coming up to 55,” Cerrone said. “There’s no way. He’s not gonna stand a chance. We’re too big for him, we’re too strong. So you can take your little English ass and get on.”
That only fueled McGregor’s fire.
“I see stiffness when I look in that 155-pound division,” McGregor said. “Slow, stiff. I feel like they’re stuck in the mud almost. The featherweights, they hit like flyweights. So it’s nice down there just destroying them and killing that whole division. But I have my eye on that 155 division and I see them all stuck in the mud in there.”
Many fighters on the dais laughed at McGregor. Cerrone, sitting directly in back of him, was still and stone-faced. “Cowboy” didn’t seem amused.
“You have a monster here at 45, Aldo, about to beat your ass,” Cerrone said. “You’ve beat nobody and you think you’re gonna come up to 155 and make a statement? C’mon man. Sit the f*ck down.
“He’s real good talking out front in the public, but when we were all standing in the back over there he had nothing to say. I stood back there for 30 minutes right next to him and he had nothing to say.”
Cerrone, who challenges dos Anjos in the main event of UFC on FOX 17 on Dec. 19 in Orlando, capped the war of words with quite the kicker. If McGregor came to lightweight, Cerrone said he would “bend his little f*cking ass over and knock the Lucky Charms out of him.”
McGregor saved his best barbs for Aldo. After Aldo withdrew from the July fight, McGregor said he’s going to take a new tact in dealing with him.
“I don’t want to scare him anymore,” McGregor said. “He’s petrified. He went running before. So now I’m going to take the opposite approach, cuddle him, look after him, whisper sweet nothings, tell him it’s going to alright, it’ll be over quick. And hopefully get him into that octagon on Dec. 12. And then end his career.”
Aldo slammed McGregor’s performance against Mendes, questioning his wrestling and his jiu-jitsu. The two men had to be separated in the staredown after they put their heads together and came forward. McGregor said Aldo hasn’t been the same since a five-round war with Mendes last October.
“You’ve looked like you’ve had a stroke,” McGregor said. “The left side of your face is drooping. I’m worried about you. I’m honestly worried. I love you. I love you like my b*tch. I just want to make sure you’re OK. Get yourself medically tested. Your face is drooping to the left.”
If Aldo doesn’t fight Dec. 12, either Mendes or Frankie Edgar will be available since they’re scheduled to fight each other the day before in the main event of The Ultimate Fighter 22 Finale. Max Holloway vs. Jeremy Stephens, another top featherweight fight, is on the UFC 194 card and so is McGregor rival Urijah Faber, who coaches opposite the Irishman on TUF 22 this season.
There are no shortage of potential opponents for “The Notorious.” And really, that seems like the way he likes it.
“You’ve got to build up other schmucks,” McGregor said, “so they can one day face me.”