When asked by a reporter why he was a boxer, Irish featherweight champion Barry McGuigan answered simply and honestly: “I can’t be a poet. I can’t tell stories.”
But he could fight. From 1981 to 1989, McGuigan amassed a record of 35-3 with 28 wins by KO/TKO. He only fought in America twice, but his loss to Steve Cruz was voted Fight of the Year for 1986 and his legacy is better than most fight fans remember.
Sadly, that’s the problem most good—even great—Irish fighters have had; most of them are utterly forgettable amid their peers once they exit the stage.
That same fate seems unlikely to befall Conor McGregor, and he hasn’t even won a true championship.
Then again, he is different to his brothers; he is one fighter who is a poet, telling stories that promise a new legacy of pride and domination for Ireland.
Without question, he is the boldest fighter Ireland has produced in over a hundred years. Even compared to such greats as McGuigan, Wayne McCullough, John “Rinty” Monaghan, Jack Dempsey and Billy Conn, McGregor is clearly a man of a different cut, although the color of the cloth is the same.
In truth, McGregor seems like the antithesis of the typical Irish combatant; he comes out raging on the microphone with all the confidence of a brawler, while his contemporaries were reserved and defense-minded when speaking outside of the ring. Inside the cage, McGregor fights like a counter-punching perfectionist, calm and precise, where his predecessors were face-first brawlers, willing to eat four to land one, trying to be the last man standing in the hammer party.
Should McGregor actually manage to capture a UFC title and defend it—even if only once—he is likely to be the most popular and successful fighter Ireland has ever seen.
But bigger doesn’t always mean better, especially when you compare McGregor to fighters such as Dempsey or Conn. In today’s age of instant information and glorification, Twitter frenzies and so on, McGregor’s gift for the gab makes him a perfect match for the 21st century.
Had McGregor been born in a previous generation, his rise to glory outside Ireland and Europe would have been much slower, yet just as inspired.
One thing that is clear is should McGregor attain the championship in 2015 or taste his first defeat in the UFC, it will all be of his doing. He is the man behind the wheel, foot hard on the gas, full speed ahead.
There is some caution to be had in that approach, of course; the faster you go, the harder it becomes to navigate those sharp curves and avoid brick walls. This doesn’t speak of a possible annihilation at the hands of Jose Aldo in the Octagon; it speaks to the defeat of interest in McGregor should he lose such a big fight so soon into his UFC career.
This might sound like utter nonsense, but the bulk of McGregor’s current fanbase does not claim Irish ancestry. He will always have the Irish, even if he loses every fight for the rest of his career, but his current standing transcends geography.
Much like Floyd Mayweather Jr., many of the people who will pay to watch McGregor are waiting to see him lose. That’s the way it is with polarizing fighters. Once that happens, interest can be quickly lost if a fighter is not careful—and caution is not a word in McGregor’s vocabulary.
At UFC Fight Night 59 on January 18, McGregor will be facing Dennis Siver. Should he have another spectacular night, the UFC will finally remember they are supposed to promote their fighters as singular entities instead of part of their own brand.
When that happens, the floodgates are going to open and every day is going to seem like St. Patrick’s Day in the world of MMA. It may get so overwhelming that the UFC hopes Aldo loses.
On paper, McGregor would be a much greater belt holder for the promotion, simply because he generates so much interest, both in and out of America. Aldo, as fantastic as he is, simply doesn’t possess that rare “it” factor that makes the world go wild.
McGregor walks and talks like a man playing cowboys and Indians for real. That kind of clear passion on such a demanding and revealing stage can make fans—even detractors—feel like they are closer than ever to being a part of the action.
Living vicariously requires the suspension of disbelief for just a little while. When passions are inflamed, both sides are so invested that disbelief is all but forgotten in the face of strong emotions, such as love and hate.
While McGregor has found it incredibly easy to inspire such emotions, Aldo seems almost like a robot, just waiting to be told what to do. Aside from his fighting (which is growing more conservative with each passing bout), Aldo is all too easy to forget after the fight and hard to remember before.
Now, all that remains is for McGregor to win, and one opponent looks far more beatable than the other.
With all the flag waving and the “You’ve never seen anyone like McGregor; he’s going to shock the world and make it look easy” predictions, it’s easy to forget that there is a very real buzz saw waiting in the distance. While Aldo isn’t a great orator and may never get a personal Reebok deal like McGregor, he’s still the best featherweight in the world. When he is on point, he can end anyone’s night in mere seconds.
So far, McGregor has managed to steer all talk from what a daunting task he will have facing Aldo and made the conversation a sing-along in his honor. It’s a wise policy, as it ensures the UFC won’t yank the title shot away from him like they have so many others in the past.
McGregor has the fans talking about what he wants them to talk about. In turn, the UFC is going to listen by force of imposition. Like the saying goes, sometimes it is better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, and right now, McGregor is dictating his own terms.
But if he secures the title shot, he’s suddenly in the deepest, darkest and most dangerous waters he’s ever seen, and that is going to be a damn big problem. While McGregor fans are quick to point out the sure fact that Aldo has never faced anyone like “Notorious,” that is a truth that cuts both ways.
Speed, grappling and striking are all areas Aldo looks to have at least a slight advantage, perhaps much greater. In experience, he has forgotten more about fighting elite-level competition than McGregor is likely to learn in the next four years combined.
His fans may try to fashion a murderers’ row out of McGregor’s past UFC opponents, but to be painfully honest, decision victories over the likes of Chad Mendes, Ricardo Lamas, Frankie Edgar and Urijah Faber are worth far more than first-round stoppages over the likes of Marcus Brimage, Diego Brandao and Dustin Poirier.
But they are not worth so much more that McGregor should be dismissed outright. There is indeed something about how he talks it and then walks it that makes him incredibly compelling. The next “big moment” in MMA will probably be McGregor vs. Aldo—a fact Aldo fans and MMA fans in general should appreciate simply for the enormity of the event.
The UFC has never sold out a stadium the size of Croke Park before, which could change very soon.
A fight against Aldo will be huge, and that will be McGregor’s doing, not Aldo’s. Sure, Aldo is the champion and brings a hell of a lot to the table, but McGregor will be the man everyone is listening to, and with that will come a tidal wave of attention.
And so, we wait to see if McGregor has the substance equal to his ambition. If he defeats Siver, he will get Aldo and the time for talking will be over.
McGregor will lead and the media will follow, but eventually, it will all give way to a truth that is only found on the other side of combat.
As Friedrich Nietzsche said: “Every talent must unfold itself in fighting.” So too must the bombast and bravado of McGregor give way to something far more substantial than words.
Is he coming to claim the featherweight title, or is he merely bringing a groundswell of attention to the division, only to end up handing it over to the Brazilian king as a painful tithe for thinking someone so great and established as Aldo could be overthrown by someone as untested as himself?
It is probably a case of the latter to be honest. There is a lot of green Kool-Aid being passed around out there, but Aldo is being dismissed far too easily by far too many.
He may not know how to polarize the public like McGregor, but he knows how to win on the biggest stages. If McGregor is anything less that utterly brilliant, Aldo could end up laying the kind of beating on him that shatters an illusion so totally that no one believes it ever existed in the first place.
Oddly enough, given all of that, I still don’t care. I love what McGregor is doing because it is utterly defiant of common perception.
He dares to be great, and thus he is great and becomes greater one fight at a time. How long will that last? How high will that take him?
I am not sure, but I am hopeful that even if he loses to Aldo, he puts up enough of a fight that the dream endures; that’s what makes fighters great to begin with: dreams.
And lest we forget, coups have been realized before on lesser tape. On February 15, 1978, Leon Spinks, with just eight professional fights on his record, fought and defeated the great Muhammad Ali, who held a record of 55-2 at the time.
Spinks went into the fight—his greatest accomplishment at that point being a gold medal in the Olympic games just two years prior—and defeated a fellow gold medalist who is arguably the greatest heavyweight of all time.
Fighting is a great many things, but sometimes all it takes is the belief that great things comes to those who take great chances.
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