Fighters Only

Issue 182

One of Ireland's greatest MMA exports, Conor McGregor, endured an extensive rehab programme following surgery to repair a torn ACL back in 2013. The fighter didn't stay down for long, rising up through the ranks to become the UFC's latest superstar. The interview that follows took place in 2013.

Unlucky. Seen as MMA’s fastest-rising star, it appeared the 25-year-old Irishman, Conor McGregor, had the world at his feet. He’d won a "Knockout of the Night" award in his UFC debut, won over the hearts of fight fans everywhere, and was put on display against Hawaiian striker Max Holloway in front of a horde of spirited Irish-American fans at the TD Garden, home to the Boston Celtics.

It was almost fairytale-esque, until a freak accident in the Holloway fight (UFC Fight Night 26: Shogun vs. Sonnen) sent McGregor’s world crashing around him.

“I tore my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) towards the end of the second round,” McGregor laments, shaking his head at the memory. “I was passing guard and I was through, but my foot was the last thing to slip out and move into side control. Holloway tried to bridge and explode out of position even though it was never going to help him. It was a rookie thing for him to do.

“By doing that it only allowed me to pass his guard, but it also caused my ACL to tear. I’ve read in a bunch of interviews that people seem to think I injured it throwing a kick, a punch, or when he kicked me – that’s not the case. That’s a fact. I don’t like people thinking I threw a f**king punch and blew my ACL. I was whooping the guy’s arse. The fight was easy.”

He adds: “The very first check-up I got told it was just a sprain and that I’d be out four-to-six weeks; but when I got the MRI results they told me I’d torn my ACL, torn my meniscus and I had a couple of other CL tears. They actually thought it was worse than it was, so when I went back again we finally realized it was just an ACL tear.”

To say that McGregor was devastated by the medical results would be an understatement. As he begins his day, sitting down at his table drinking a glass of coconut water, he recalls how he felt ‘heartbroken’ when he found out he’d be out injured for 10 months – because he’s the type of guy who has “to stay busy” and “needs contact”.

However, as soon as he’s done talking about his feelings, he perks back up. McGregor may be down, but he’s not out, and most certainly far from done. It’s interesting to see how he’s been able to translate his cage confidence into the unbreakable belief that he’ll be able to return to the Octagon better than he was before – and quicker than anyone else has in the past.

Not only is he working with some of the best doctors around – in fact, the very same ones who helped repair George St Pierre’s ACL – he’s also been working on every machine possible to get his knee as strong as it can be.

McGregor explains: “I began exercising straight after the surgery, I was looking to get movement straight away. They gave me this machine called the CPM, which stands for continuous passive motion, and I would move my leg up and down, and then I would have to try and get the straightness back in it.

“For five days post-surgery, all I was doing was laying in bed trying to get movement back in my leg and trying to straighten it. Those were the toughest days; you’re in a lot of pain; you’re on medication and you’re trying to work out too. After those five days, I began going to the physiotherapist and started to ice my knee – you don’t ice your knee until a week after, once the bandages come off.

“There’s a lot of tools at the physio's. They’ve got something called the anti-gravity treadmill, which takes your weight off while you’re running; it’s like you’re running on the moon or something. I’m in the same places Georges was in. I’m undergoing the exact same rehab with the same people and I’m going through the same motions too. Plus, I’m just a little bit ahead of him in my schedule.”

The one thing we won’t find McGregor doing much during his time in rehab, or even when he’s in training camp, is weights; he prefers to keep things more simple in terms of his strength and conditioning.

“Lifting weights is the last thing on my mind, I’m not a weightlifter, I’m a mixed martial artist,” McGregor says defiantly. “A lot of people become addicted to strength and conditioning and do it three or four days a week. However, when the door closes and the bell goes it doesn’t f**king matter who can squat the most.

“Body weight exercises are the sort of thing I do, lots of pull-ups, push-ups and sit-ups. Right now, because of my injury, I’ve been focusing a lot on balance drills and working on my hamstrings. I’ve been working on so many things. The people who are working with me are very passionate about sports rehab, so I’m very happy and glad to be here.

“I’m learning more about my body from being here. I’ve always had little niggles during my camp, and things like that, and by being here I’ve been able to figure out all these little things I should be doing to stop myself from getting injured. I’m learning so much more about the human frame from just being here.”

Notorious nutrition

After watching McGregor work through the first part of his arduous rehab session, the Irishman produces his healthy salad lunch bowl. Even though he’s not in fight camp, and free to eat whatever he wants, LA subscribes to an extremely health-conscious lifestyle, so taking a trip to any local fast food restaurant is way off.

“I’ve been eating a lot of big meals and going out to fancy restaurants. I’ve had this thing called steak frites which is basically like steak and chips, but the chips are sweet potatoes,” he says, as he chows down on another mouthful of greens and olives. “The steak was cooked to absolute perfection and it had some dijonnaise on it, which made it delicious.

“That’s the type of s**t I’m eating. I’m always eating good food. Depending on how far out I am from a fight I might cut out a few things. You wouldn’t catch me eating too much in terms of takeaways.”

Not only is McGregor not willing to fill his body up with junk food, he’s also not a fan of energy drinks. A notorious gym rat, McGregor is very conscious about what he uses to help fuel his body when he’s training.

“I love water and I really love coconut water too, but I never drink energy drinks. Ever! There’s a coconut water company that sends me crates of the stuff every month when I’m back home in Ireland, and then when I’m out here I get sent stuff by another company. I’m also partial to a bit of coffee. I just eat good quality meat and keep hydrated.”

Although he may have no interest in energy drinks, one thing McGregor is definitely interested in is moving up to lightweight again at some point in his career. Even though he’s made considerable noise in the UFC’s featherweight division, just before he made the switch over to the world’s biggest promotion he won the Cage Warriors lightweight strap. With the cut to 145lb becoming increasingly difficult for McGregor, another run at lightweight could be on the cards in the future.

“If I’m fighting at lightweight, my diet isn’t quite as strict when I get close to a fight,” McGregor reveals. “There are pros and cons to fighting up and down weight classes. The positive thing about cutting down to featherweight is that I’m the bigger man, but it’s definitely harder to get rid of those extra 10 pounds.

“Cutting weight is not fun by any stretch of the imagination. It’s really tough and I have to be really strict with my body. I have making weight down to a tee but I actually like fighting at lightweight and I’m happy to fight there. It’s definitely a division I have my eyes on in the future.”

The mentality of a fighter

Some people may tell you that to be a successful fighter you need to be conditioned to the max, while others may say that your skill-set needs to be prime and ready for anything your opponent throws at you. And both are reasonable schools of thought. But most fighters will tell you that the fight game is truly a test of wills.

McGregor has proven to be one of the most mentally strong fighters in the world; he exudes confidence whenever he steps into a room or when he opens his mouth to unleash his thick Irish accent. And he backs up every word he says, whether it’s in the cage or in the medical room.

“You tell yourself what you are and whatever you think you are, you are,” McGregor states. “I’ve always thought I was number one and that’s how I approach it. How else am I suppose to work in this sport? I feel as if I’m at the top in every thing I do.

“I’ve seen things, I’ve visualised things happening before my eyes. I saw myself winning the featherweight title for Cage Warriors; and I saw myself winning my second title there, getting my UFC debut and putting more eyes on Irish MMA. All these things keep happening for me so I can’t complain. It just shows me that I can almost predict the future at this stage.

“When it comes to being confident in how my rehab is going, I just believe that I’m a specimen of movement. I feel like I can do it better than anyone out there.

I’m putting in a lot of work and everyone can see that everything is going great, even the doctor said that things are a little bit better compared to Georges.

“People in the MMA community, and sports in general, will study my rehab and the way I’ve recovered. That’s my whole thing, I don’t do things in halves.”

The fighting Irish

McGregor hasn’t just made a name for himself with his captivating interviews and intoxicating enthusiasm, he’s also been able to truly show off his skills in the Octagon, uppercutting TUF 14 competitor Marcus Brimage into oblivion during the UFC’s most recent trip to Sweden, and dominating Max Holloway for three rounds. Although an artist usually takes time to sit back and admire their work, McGregor is more concerned with critiquing what he’s done inside the Octagon.

“I’m more critical of myself than anyone,” he says. “I definitely talk the talk and hype myself up, but I’m critical of everything I do. I expect greatness and nothing less. I don’t think I’ll ever look at myself and think I’ve done something perfectly.

“The areas of my game that I want to improve upon could change daily, sometimes hourly. Right now I want to improve upon my knee flexibility, my knee strength. That’s where I’m at right now.

“When I’m fully in camp it’ll change constantly. I may want to work on my jab, I may want to work on my kicks. I just go with however I feel at the time. I’m not trying to just single out one thing and focus on that, I’m just trying to grow as a mixed martial artist. I’m looking for perfection in movement. That’s what I’m really looking for.”

One thing McGregor does better than most fighters in MMA is use combination punching. His exceptional skills as a pugilist are well known, but what makes him so much better than others?

“I’ve got a background in movement and it’s taken hours upon hours on the mat, in the gym and in the ring,” he explains. “That will get you your flow and get you to put yourself together; you’ll also quickly begin to read movement more.

“Movement is the key because if you have good movement, you can base all your strikes on what your opponent is going to do. I’ll tell you why a lot of fighters throw singular shots when they fight: it’s because they’re rookies. There’s a lot of guys in there who aren’t really there yet. They’re in the UFC but they’re not really there yet as a fighter.”

Even though he’s not scheduled to return to the Octagon until some time next year, McGregor still has his targets set on anyone who could be considered an opponent when he returns; and he wasn’t mincing any words about his list of potential rivals, before he left us to rinse and repeat his rehab.

“People are saying that when I meet a wrestler on the mat, that will be my fall. But that’s just a funny story to me. We’ll see about that, and that goes for the 155lb division as well. I think that’s why [Sean] Shelby doesn’t want me to go to 155lb because there’s a lot of lay ‘n’ pray wrestlers out there and he wants to keep me at 145lb to face exciting strikers.

“However, if you only have one thing, whether you’re just a wrestler, a boxer or just a grappler, then that’s not enough. I don’t care what these guys have, it’s

not enough to stop me. I am many things and I move in many ways.

“If a guy is singular, and there’s a lot of them in this sport who are, then they’ll need to start moving in many different ways to be able to come at me; to even come close to me.”