Tag: Opinion

You want to know something weird? Conor McGregor isn’t beloved by everyone in Ireland.

McGregor is almost certainly the most famous athlete in the history of the country. Nobody comes close, really. But instead of being beloved and accepted by everyone of all age groups, McGregor is polarizing. He is divisive, and the divide is largely along age lines.

Two years ago, I went to Dublin to try to get a sense of the place that helped mold and create him. I discovered two groups: those who love him unconditionally and those who believe his attitude and antics make him a poor representative of the country. The younger generation loves McGregor. The older folks believe he could carry himself a lot better, to be a better representative for his home.

After his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last weekend in Las Vegas, I have to wonder if the Irish elders’ view of McGregor might be changing.

If not, it should. There may be no better winner in all of sport than McGregor. And there is certainly no better loser.

Leading up to a fight, he’s brash, bold and arrogant to the point of being insufferable. Though the hardcore McGregorites will continue to fawn over anything he says or does no matter how far over the line he may go, there does seem to come a point for the rest of us where enough is just enough.

My personal breaking point came on Day 3 of the seemingly never-ending World Tour the pair embarked on to build hype for the fight. That was when I understood the point a Dublin cab driver tried to make to me two years ago.

“He’s got all the talent in the world,” the driver told me. “We just wish he’d carry himself a little differently. You understand?”

I did, but I didn’t.

I do now.

All that pre-fight bravado and buffoonery vanishes after the ending of a McGregor fight, though. In losing to Mayweather, McGregor was again gracious and respectful. You could visibly see the pre-fight veneer he’d constructed melt away. In its place was a fighter thankful for the opportunity to step in the ring with such a renowned boxer. He was grateful for the chance to prove the doubters wrong.

To prove he belonged.

In a sport where so few athletes are willing to give their opponents due credit, McGregor stands alone for his willingness to help build back up what he spent so much time tearing down. He makes no excuses about injuries nobody knows about. In fact, when he was preparing to face late replacement Chad Mendes—who stepped in for Jose Aldo at UFC 189 the first time the pair was scheduled to fight—McGregor was hiding a nasty ACL injury suffered while training with Rory MacDonald.

And even after finishing Mendes, he made no mention of the injury. It would be some time before he’d even confirm it, and even then he downplayed the significance.

Every fighter deals with some sort of injury going into every fight. It is the nature of the sport. The human body simply can’t stand up to the rigors of a full-time training camp without suffering some sort of trauma, no matter how supremely conditioned you may be. But McGregor is one of the few who refuses to use wear and tear or even significant injuries as an excuse for a loss.

In victory, McGregor is just as magnanimous, and sometimes even sorrowful. Witness his words to Aldo moments after their years-long feud came to an end in just 13 shocking seconds. 

“I’m sorry,” McGregor said. “We’ll go again. And again.”

McGregor has revolutionized mixed martial arts in profound ways, ways that will forever alter the landscape of what we once thought possible on the business side of things. Generations of future fighters have a new gold standard to model themselves after when it comes to business acumen and maximizing their earning potential. He has broken through the glass ceiling and continues to venture into uncharted territories.

But those same generations of future fighters—and the ones currently plying their trade in today’s UFC and Bellator—can also learn a lot from McGregor about being a professional when the fight is over. The quickest way to lose the respect of the fans is to make excuses for your performance and your loss.

The quickest way to earn it is by doing what McGregor does, by taking responsibility for what happened, by giving your opponent the respect they deserve and by moving forward and learning from the knowledge you gleaned in defeat.

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It’s become the Zapruder film of the combat sports crowd.

And depending on which side of the Floyd Mayweather Jr./Conor McGregor debate you find yourself, chances are your impressions of their Saturday night fight’s climax are a bit different.

Those running with The Money Team watch the final 65 seconds at T-Mobile Arena and see their man battering a helpless McGregor across the ring until referee Robert Byrd rescues the bratty Irishman.

Meanwhile, those aligned with Team Notorious insist their guy was merely reeling from fatigue, still in full possession of his senses and in no way near a state that warranted a fight-ending intervention.

Truth told, the answer may be somewhere in between.

But it’s closer to one side than the other.

A clinical review of the fight’s final stages indeed reveals McGregor looking exhausted in the corner before the arrival of the 10th, and barely acknowledging his trainer’s exhortations.

He gamely began the round by flicking punches as Mayweather trudged forward, but was unable to either back his man up or tie him up and soon found himself vulnerable in a corner.

It was there where he took the first in a series of chopping right hands, about 45 seconds into the round, that drew gasps from the broadcast team on Showtime and sent him reeling along the ropes.

A second right buckled his knees and drew another failed attempt at a clinch, which resulted in yet another clean right and yet another awkward stumble backward.

A pouncing Mayweather initially missed with a quick series of looping shots, but connected soon after on an overhand left that prompted a non-replying McGregor to lurch forward along the middle strand, where he took one final flush left before Byrd leapt in at 1:05.

From end to end, the decisive sequence took just 20 seconds, during which Mayweather threw about 17 punches and cleanly landed six, while McGregor offered only one, a missed right uppercut, in return.

So, statistically speaking, it hardly qualifies as an evisceration.

And if your contention is that a knockdown would have been a more satisfying end, you’re correct.

But when you consider optics alongside numbers, it’s easier to see why Byrd pulled the plug.

Though McGregor maintained afterward that he’d been more tired than buzzed, his unstable legs and lack of return fire made him look the part of a beaten man.

And as he bent forward under Mayweather’s final barrage with hands down and head exposed, it wasn’t the referee’s job to gauge the reasons for the position—or to wait for a flatlining EEG to validate it. His job was to protect a fighter who was no longer providing any competitive resistance.

Unlike with a baseball manager, where failing to remove a spent pitcher might result in a spiked earned run average, a referee allowing too many unfettered blows to a spent fighter hoping to “wobble back” to his corner is risking far more dire consequences.

In that light, McGregor’s suggestion that he deserved more time falls flat.

“The stoppage was spot-on, nothing wrong with it,” said Randy Gordon, former chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission and current SiriusXM radio host.

“I really believe had that been Mayweather instead of McGregor, Byrd would have done the same thing. I have no problem with the stoppage.”

Additionally, while there’s no consensus playbook for how fighters should act if they feel a referee ended matters too soon, there was precisely zero demonstrable debate from either McGregor or his corner as Byrd made his call.

In fact, it wasn’t until several minutes later, during a mid-ring debriefing with Showtime’s Jim Gray, that the beaten man indicated even the slightest issue with the closing scene.

Byrd’s decision counts for something more than marketing.

A point with which Mauro Ranallo, the Showtime blow-by-blow man who built his brand behind an MMA mic, agreed on air.

“I think the referee did the job that he was assigned to do,” he said, “protect McGregor.”

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

It’s become the Zapruder film of the combat sports crowd.

And depending on which side of the Floyd Mayweather Jr./Conor McGregor debate you find yourself, chances are your impressions of their Saturday night fight’s climax are a bit different.

Those running with The Money Team watch the final 65 seconds at T-Mobile Arena and see their man battering a helpless McGregor across the ring until referee Robert Byrd rescues the bratty Irishman.

Meanwhile, those aligned with Team Notorious insist their guy was merely reeling from fatigue, still in full possession of his senses and in no way near a state that warranted a fight-ending intervention.

Truth told, the answer may be somewhere in between.

But it’s closer to one side than the other.

A clinical review of the fight’s final stages indeed reveals McGregor looking exhausted in the corner before the arrival of the 10th, and barely acknowledging his trainer’s exhortations.

He gamely began the round by flicking punches as Mayweather trudged forward, but was unable to either back his man up or tie him up and soon found himself vulnerable in a corner.

It was there where he took the first in a series of chopping right hands, about 45 seconds into the round, that drew gasps from the broadcast team on Showtime and sent him reeling along the ropes.

A second right buckled his knees and drew another failed attempt at a clinch, which resulted in yet another clean right and yet another awkward stumble backward.

A pouncing Mayweather initially missed with a quick series of looping shots, but connected soon after on an overhand left that prompted a non-replying McGregor to lurch forward along the middle strand, where he took one final flush left before Byrd leapt in at 1:05.

From end to end, the decisive sequence took just 20 seconds, during which Mayweather threw about 17 punches and cleanly landed six, while McGregor offered only one, a missed right uppercut, in return.

So, statistically speaking, it hardly qualifies as an evisceration.

And if your contention is that a knockdown would have been a more satisfying end, you’re correct.

But when you consider optics alongside numbers, it’s easier to see why Byrd pulled the plug.

Though McGregor maintained afterward that he’d been more tired than buzzed, his unstable legs and lack of return fire made him look the part of a beaten man.

And as he bent forward under Mayweather’s final barrage with hands down and head exposed, it wasn’t the referee’s job to gauge the reasons for the position—or to wait for a flatlining EEG to validate it. His job was to protect a fighter who was no longer providing any competitive resistance.

Unlike with a baseball manager, where failing to remove a spent pitcher might result in a spiked earned run average, a referee allowing too many unfettered blows to a spent fighter hoping to “wobble back” to his corner is risking far more dire consequences.

In that light, McGregor’s suggestion that he deserved more time falls flat.

“The stoppage was spot-on, nothing wrong with it,” said Randy Gordon, former chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission and current SiriusXM radio host.

“I really believe had that been Mayweather instead of McGregor, Byrd would have done the same thing. I have no problem with the stoppage.”

Additionally, while there’s no consensus playbook for how fighters should act if they feel a referee ended matters too soon, there was precisely zero demonstrable debate from either McGregor or his corner as Byrd made his call.

In fact, it wasn’t until several minutes later, during a mid-ring debriefing with Showtime’s Jim Gray, that the beaten man indicated even the slightest issue with the closing scene.

Byrd’s decision counts for something more than marketing.

A point with which Mauro Ranallo, the Showtime blow-by-blow man who built his brand behind an MMA mic, agreed on air.

“I think the referee did the job that he was assigned to do,” he said, “protect McGregor.”

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com