Issue 136

December 2015

Conor McGregor insists José Aldo won’t show – but in his head it hardly matters anyway

Gareth A Davies

TV analyst and MMA reporter for The Telegraph, UK, evaluates Conor McGregor’s psyche

If Conor McGregor really is ‘Mystic Mac’ and he’s about to sign a nine-figure UFC contract, then he’s set to become the wealthiest Irish sportsman of all time. He’s certainly focused on the riches: the belt and the money, or put another way, belt and braces for life. We all know the way McGregor’s mind works: he wants it all and he wants it now. Gold around his waist, on his wrist and in his bank account.

I had a fascinating afternoon around Conor in Dublin recently. He was filming an commercial with Bud Light, a blue-chip sponsor of the UFC. He was engaging, entertaining and lit up for the cameras. He let rip – as he so often does – and there is an innate level of entertainment in what he can do. 

He’s a box-set series all on his own, and indeed, of his own making. He had to act, which he hates, but drove himself to do it nonetheless. He understands he needs to do it to maintain the extraordinarily profile his fighting and delivering on his promises has brought him. But with a blink he was back to the ‘real’ Conor again. No faux stuff, just as he was in that non-TUF way he told all his team on Season 22 in his rousing opening speech to “get real” and know it was “every man for himself.” That was the real Conor McGregor. Pragmatist, rebellious leader, rule-breaker, couldn’t-give-a-s**tter.

He was in that frame of mind when we talked and he was both revelatory and compelling. There’s a bigger picture with McGregor beyond the brash fighting master of skills and marketeering. 

What’s fascinating about the 27-year-old is that his market value is very acutely detailed in his own mind. And in a meta way as well. He can actually look in on himself from the outside and see where he stands. That’s rare. Rare in sport, fight sports, business even. Almost visionary.

McGregor is not just visualizing winning fights and belts. He’s visualized an entire lifestyle. The Mac Mansion, the private jets across the Atlantic, the close relationship with Dana White and the Fertitta brothers. The day we met, he had just taken delivery of a new BWM i8 electric car, and was bringing an American Chevy over to Ireland to be driven around in. He had also invested in a security detail. The necessary additions for a life made richer by success.

One Irish sports psychologist reckons McGregor’s ‘belief levels’ are off the chart. The theory is that you perform at your belief level. It doesn’t matter if what you believe isn’t actually true. As long as you believe it, it is true for you. Or in this case, for McGregor. Rather like Conor’s saying that ‘If one of us goes to war, we all go to war,’ when he talks about the ‘Fighting Irish.’ It’s not actually true.

Yet McGregor operates on that level, and tacitly believes his entire country is with him. Just as he does with the UFC framework, indeed, and this is even more fascinating. Rather like Muhammad Ali once did, McGregor has an ability to use psychology against his opponents in very smart ways. I suspect he is unique in this way at the moment. A pathfinder. 

Notice how McGregor talks at opponents, in his mind, as if the leading figures running the UFC are actually in his camp. It’s as if he’s in the castle, sitting with the kings, with all the challengers trying to get inside the walls. That’s because he’s the guy “bringing in 60 million US dollars,” he tells me. 

But McGregor’s still the interim champion, I reminded him. He wouldn’t have it. He’s the champion, he insisted. Utter self-belief. 

McGregor doesn’t believe José Aldo will show up on December 12th in Las Vegas. Injuries are excuses. Injuries are there for Aldo to avoid being eviscerated by McGregor. He’s very, very believable.

Break the streak 

8½ years undefeated

To become the undisputed UFC featherweight champion, Conor McGregor wll have to snap José Aldo’s 15-fight winning streak.