(Any time you need a security detail to do a live interview, you’re gonna have a bad time. / Props: UFC)
Since UFC featherweight Conor McGregor is in Rio this weekend to mean mug at Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes at UFC 179, the promotion decided to book him for a fan Q&A at the Maracanazinho Gymnasium. Yes, the UFC had an Irish superheel do a live show in front of a bunch of Brazilians who hate him, and yes, it was kind of a fiasco.
As Helwani summed it up: “This is like Andy Kaufman in Memphis. They hate him and he’s eating it up…Never experienced something like this. Basically every fan is coming to the mic to tell Conor how much they hate him.” Here are some highlights…
0:44: McGregor tells the crowd that the “Brazilian mamacitas” like his hair.
3:45: “It was your MOTHER.”
4:28: “The next time Jose steps into the Octagon after Saturday night, it will be to face me.” The crowd cheers, then starts chanting something that is either “Aldo” or a death threat.
6:49-7:13: One of the attendees goes on a rant that the translator doesn’t even try to pass along to McGregor, perhaps out of fear. Eventually, he huddles up with McGregor to give him the basic gist of what was said.
8:15: The guy is still talking. Paula Sack attempts to restore order. McGregor never responds to what was said and the next fan steps up to the mic.
9:04: “Jose Aldo…oo, va moher!” The crowd laughs at McGregor’s pronunciation of their national slogan.
9:41: “No Brazilians will have a world title after I am done!” McGregor says, and the fan on the mic laughs and I think tells him to eat shit, maybe?
10:10: A guy with a broken arm leads his homeboys in another insulting chant. This is getting crazy.
11:03: “I speak TROOT. I don’t speak trash, I speak TROOT.”
11:13-11:37: Just watch the guy in the green shirt. Or rather, try not to watch him.
11:53: “Come down here and kiss my feet.”
12:58-13:09: Guy in the green shirt invents International Douchebag Sign Language.
15:44-15:51: Conor McGregor seems like a smart dude, but he also seems to think that they speak Spanish in Brazil.
17:21: “Conor bless you. Conor bless you.”