The UFC featherweight champion says he feels most at ease when he makes his walk to the Octagon on fight night.
Many fighters have succumbed to the Octagon jitters when making their way to the cage on fight night. Conor McGregor is not one of them.
The brash Irishman enters the arena with unerring composure, usually smiling and playing to the camera as he makes his walk. McGregor attributes this mindset to the simple fact that he steps inside the Octagon every single day at SBG Ireland.
“The Notorious” spoke to Colin Cowherd on Tuesday (h/t David St. Martin of MMA Fighting) and said he feels more nervous preparing for big interviews on shows such as The Conan O’Brien show.
“You know, for me [the Octagon] is where I’m almost the least nervous,” McGregor said on pre-fight jitters. “There are other things that might make me nervous. Things like doing the Conan O’Brien Show. I might get a little more nervous for these unusual things than I would walking out to the Octagon. Walking out to Octagon and stepping into a cage is something I literally do every single day of my life. I step foot inside an Octagon and train and compete.
“It’s just another day for me. I’m unshackling chains off me when I make that walk. It’s freedom for me in there. I get to go in. I have nobody telling me what I can do or how I can do it. I’m free to paint the picture how I want. That’s it. I enter, I come out the gate fast and I spin and I set the tone for the unorthodox and then set my opponent up for a KO blow and then I execute it. It’s simply another day for me.”
While McGregor feels at home when the cage door closes, his opponents are often tense and agitated, infuriated with the months of trash talk and verbal abuse. And, although the Dubliner went back-and-forth with Nate Diaz at the UFC 196 press conference last week, McGregor says he feels no ill will towards Nate or any of his opponents.
“I don’t really hate Nate,” said McGregor. “I have no hate for any man that is on the same journey as me. We’re all chasing the same dream here so I can’t hate the man with the same dream as me. For me, it’s business. There is no emotion there. I go in and I decipher his movements, I decipher his reactions and I make a trap for him and I walk him into the trap. Whether situations in the fight are being verbalized, this is just another day inside the Octagon.
“They talk while they do their work but Nate is no different and I am no different. I’m sure there will be talking but it is business. There is no hate. There is cold.”
UFC 196 will host a welterweight main event between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 5th.