Midnight Mania: President McGregor To The Rescue?

Bringing you the weird and wild from the world of MMA each and every weeknight!

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Like the great Tito Ortiz before him, former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion Conor McGregor is hoping to parlay fighting success and name recognition into a successful political career. Unlike “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy,” McGregor isn’t just aiming for a spot on the local city council.

As his saying goes, “He’s here to take over!” True to his word, “Notorious” has his eyes on becoming president of Ireland.

McGregor has hinted at political aspirations for a long time, but he’s been especially active in the last few weeks. Near the end of November, a man armed with a knife attacked three children and sent them to the hospital. Rumor quickly spread that the assailant was an immigrant. This was later confirmed, though the man had also lived in Ireland for over 20 years at the time of the stabbings. Either way, the initial rumor poured fuel on an already burning fire, igniting a series of violent riots around the Irish capital. McGregor has been commenting on the events the whole time, and some have argued spurring on the violence.

At any rate, Ireland’s future is clearly on McGregor’s mind. Speaking on his own potential presidency run, McGregor highlighted his status as an outsider to the politic parties and overall system, as well as his youth.

Sound a bit familiar?

Potential competition if I run. Gerry, 78. Bertie. 75. Enda, 74. Each with unbreakable ties to their individual parties politics. Regardless of what the public outside of their parties feel. These parties govern themselves vs govern the people. Or me, 35. Young, active, passionate, fresh skin in the game. I listen. I support. I adapt. I have no affiliation/bias/favoritism toward any party. They would genuinely be held to account regarding the current sway of public feeling. I’d even put it all to vote. There’d be votes every week to make sure. I can fund. It would not be me in power as President, people of Ireland. It would be me and you.

This post drew the attention of would-be MMA legend and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who responded, “I think you could take them all single-handed. Not even fair.” In a lengthy response, McGregor explained the steps necessary to score a nomination. He also attacked the current lack of transparency and public interaction in Irish politics, and promised a greater focus on making sure public needs are met.

It’s quite the campaign speech tweet. Check it out in full below:

I’d fancy my chances Elon, 100%. I’d need to be nominated either by: at least 20 members of the Oireachtas; or at least four local authorities (AKA county councils) to run.

Most (26) local authorities are county councils. There are also 3 city councils (Dublin, Galway, and Cork) and 2 councils that oversee a city and a county (Limerick and Waterford).

A process. Either way, I’d just be happy with absolute transparency and consultation to the public. Currently there is none. Not an iota. False promises come around the time of election and then it is literally straight ignorance into the face thereafter. It’s disgusting. Even opposition politics seems to me more about the attempt of gaining power vs seeking their change. If those currently in power agreed to usher in all opposition stance on change it wouldn’t even be enough. It’s power/greed, the aim. I feel if a power swap happened today, the situation would simply reverse. The same questions and requests and condemnations but only from the opposite side then. Me, I’d clean the fuckin’ dail if it meant our issues were heard and corrected and the public were consulted in these decisions. A true democracy! Among many other things, the allocation of our nations funds has been nothing short of criminal, and without an iota of consideration for the publics thinking. This is why I’d run, if I was to. To be a voice of the people that deserve to be heard. President of Ireland is a unique position to other countries but it would demand response to questioning. Dialect would be so good for us in the public. Our people feel ignored. Unheard. Until of course election time. Then the waffle begins. Hope all is well bro, congrats on the App and rebrand to X, it is flying like those rockets!

Of course, this is all just social media silliness at the moment. Any man with McGregor’s popularity and finances could certainly build some political momentum, but it’s hard to ignore all the various controversies in McGregor’s history. Ultimately, let’s just hope this little side venture doesn’t interrupt McGregor’s potential return at UFC 300!

Insomnia

Sneaky foot sweeps are so cool.

The Mike Perry collage of pain hasn’t quite yet hit peak “El Cucuy” levels, but fighting “Platinum” sure seems like an awful experience.

Diego Lopes wants a piece of Josh Emmett.

“The Gun” vs. “The Jaguar” should be fun Featherweight kickboxing!

25-4 Eduard Vartanyan cannot find his way into the UFC, but every 6-0 prospect from a major US gym gets a shot on Contenders Series. The fight game ain’t fair!

Excellent upper body control on the back take.

Clay Guida’s full walkout clip from over the weekend is must-watch entertainment.

Slips, rips, and KO clips

Notice how Caldone shifts to Southpaw before planting his feet with a check hook. Sneaky!

Loaded up the left hook and landed it clean.

At least one submission over the weekend was able to survive a big slam! BJJ lives!

Random Land

A new combination of sports.

Midnight Music: Proto-punk, 1970

Sleep well Maniacs! More martial arts madness is always on the way.