After a labyrinthine 11 months that saw Aldo and McGregor capture the intrigue of a whole new international audience, it was hard to believe that the eventual act would only last 13 seconds.
For a product of the Irish MMA scene to make such an undeniable mark on the top flight of the sport is unprecedented, but if there was one person in the world who never doubted that it could be done, it was Conor McGregor.
The Spark That Lit the Fuse
Despite the harsh cold in Boston last January, there was some real heat generated in the home of the Irish Diaspora in North America, as Ireland’s latest and most captivating fighting charge paid his second visit to Beantown.
The first time he had performed in the energetic city he banked his only fight that lasted all three rounds in a victory over Max Holloway. Of course, the fact that he completely tore his ACL and MCL trying to execute a knee slide pass in the second round of his bout with the Hawaiian had definitely impacted the bout.
Although he had been given the blackout treatment on his way to the Octagon, usually reserved for champions, for his bout with Holloway on his return to Boston, McGregor’s star shined brighter than ever. After coming back from his injury to finish Diego Brandao in one round in Dublin, he then introduced Dustin Poirier to the canvas at the MGM five months later.
While there were many that thought the Poirier win was enough to grant him a crack at the featherweight belt, Dennis Siver was the man who had been tasked with keeping McGregor out of the championship conversation. But, let’s be honest, nobody in their right mind thought the Russian had a chance at stopping the Dubliner. The real danger was that McGregor would not be emphatic. It needed to be definitive, a complete demolition, to prove his worth at the featherweight top table.
Before I arrived in Boston, ‘The Notorious’ tried to inform me of his popularity in the city.
“I’m on every bin–these aren’t the little bins you see back in Ireland–these are some mad, state-of-the-art bins,” he laughed. “Fuckin’ spaceship bins. The people of Boston have really embraced me.”
The main event clash was broadcast straight after the New England Patriots sound dispatch of the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship final, which brought an entire new flock of viewers with it. More importantly, there was a very distinguished guest in town to watch the action unfold.
Jose Aldo posed with a picture of McGregor backstage at the TD Garden hours before the fight. Drawn sporting clown’s clothes, it fitted perfectly with Aldo’s description of McGregor as the “court jester” following his decision win over Mendes in October in what many felt was 2014’s ‘Fight of the Year’.
However, it would be Aldo’s presence at the event that would present McGregor with the spark that lit the fuse.
After completely overwhelming Siver in two rounds, the Russian collapsed following the connection of McGregor’s left straight. Immediately afterwards, McGregor scaled the fence and made a beeline for Aldo. The image of him roaring in the Brazilian’s face as the champion laughed was promotional gold and shortly afterwards McGregor’s title shot was announced to the delight of the Irish and the scorn of his featherweight opposition and naysayers.
Let the Games Begin
UFC announced that Aldo and McGregor would collide for the title on July 11 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, and soon after it was revealed that world tour would take place to coincide with the event. Due to be rolled out across five countries and eight cities, McGregor arrived in Rio to begin his journey with Aldo and it was clear that the Dubliner was not going to pull any punches in his torment of the champion.
The only man to ever hold UFC’s featherweight title, Aldo hadn’t tasted defeat in 10 years. Before eventually meeting McGregor he would become the number one pound-for-pound fighter on the promotion’s books due to the downfall of Rousey and suspension of Jon Jones. His reign had been long and a constant in terms of the world’s flagship MMA promotion, but McGregor knew how to make a stir on enemy soil.
Throwing darts at an effigy of the champion, a shirtless McGregor went on to rip the picture in half in his first outing of the tour in a Rio pub. His actions obviously had the desired effect as the whole arena hissed and booed as he made his way to the stage in Rio de Janeiro for the first press conference of their journey.
From Rio to Vegas and through to Los Angeles, Boston, Vancouver, Calgary, New York and Toronto, McGregor was having a clear impact on Aldo. He cursed the Irishman and appeared visibly rattled after the challenger had the audacity to touch him on the shoulder–that’s right, the shoulder. Never before had Aldo had so much attention on him with an Embedded series coinciding with the tour. The added exposure could’ve also added some extra strain to the situation.
Throughout the tour, McGregor constantly told anyone who would listen that he did not see the contest continuing after the first collision. Slowly it didn’t only become Aldo who was slating the Dubliner, but many media members and fans alike felt that he had taken his talk too far with his lambasting of Aldo and his predictions relating to the contest.
The tour came to a head in Dublin on March 31st after the penultimate date in London. The crowd, who were heavily intoxicated for the most part, upset the diehard MMA community as they tore Aldo to shreds as he waited to field their questions. In terms of getting into Aldo’s head, if you’re into that kind of thing, his people were one of the best tools at the disposal of McGregor.
The champion was seething, and understandably so, as the Irish commanded him to spit shine his belt. Adding insult to injury, McGregor even snatched the title from Aldo in front of the invested mob, raising it aloft to the gathering in the Irish capital before they reached fever pitch.
It may have been a little over the top, but again, McGregor’s touch had the impact that he wanted. People talked about the final date of the tour all over the world. It might have been insulting, classless and a little embarrassing if you were Irish based on some fan behaviour, but you couldn’t deny that there was more interest than ever generated around a featherweight title shot and certainly any title shot in the lighter weight ranks than ever before.
Purgatory
(Photo via MMAMania)
Although we only had to wait six weeks after the World Tour ended, it still felt like a lifetime before we would finally reach the July 11 date.
It shouldn’t have, though. McGregor’s rise in the UFC ranks was absolutely meteoric. Considering that he had been sidelined for a year and it had only taken him a little less than two years to schedule a championship date, there was no reason to complain, really.
He became far more than just a sporting icon in Ireland. All around Ireland, men dress in three-piece suits, groom the same regal beards and talk with the same broken meter as ‘The Notorious.’ For long-term fans of the sport, “the bandwagon” became irritating to the point that the diehards felt they had to explain the dangers of McGregor’s upcoming opponent–not exclusively for those didn’t think he was going to win, but rather to offer some opposition to the otherwise blissfully unaware narratives.
The battle to legitimise the sport in Ireland was still in full swing too. The ‘World Tour’ leg in Ireland set MMA back in terms of it being regarded as a “real sport” due to the ridiculousness of some of the fans’ line of questioning to Aldo, despite McGregor having to court a similar hostility in Rio. Some people flat out did not like the behaviour of McGregor, as he appeared to goad Aldo into his verbal exchanges, where he was always dominant.
Like Catholics have purgatory, an intermediate state after physical death in which those destined for heaven wait to achieve a sufficient level of holiness to get to eternal life, the loss of Jose Aldo two weeks out from UFC 189 forced McGregor’s new fan base to further their experience with the sport and the Irish featherweight himself. Instead of eternal life, their payoff would be the inevitable date with Aldo if McGregor could claim victory.
When the news of Brazilian’s botched drug test in Rio and eventual withdrawal due to a rib injury originally circulated, the travelling contingent was absolutely outraged. Having paid so much, they felt like they were being robbed of something.
However, with McGregor still in the picture and new a challenge in front of him in Chad Mendes, the despair soon wore off. To add to that, there would also be an interim title on the line, which would allow UFC to keep the bout as the main event despite the welterweight crown also being on the line that night. Furthermore, it would be one more big test for the SBG man and one more big question to answer, how would he do against a seasoned wrestler?
And McGregor got put on his back in the first round. Without his signature movement on offer due to a knee injury sustained in the lead-up to July 11, he was taken down and there was a panicked lull in the crowd in the MGM when it happened. While everyone else feared the worst, despite being cut for the first time in his career, ‘The Notorious’ smiled at Mendes. When the fight restarted on the feet in the second round, the writing was on the wall as the American’s body was continually punctured by the Dubliner’s adapted front kick.
He curled his toes into the body of the American and as soon as he started blocking his head, the fatal left hand delivered on queue. McGregor raised the championship belt and the Irish put on a memorable show in Vegas. The world tuned in to see McGregor and his followers paint Sin City green, white and gold, which proved the Irishman as an international draw. He also broke UFC’s MGM gate record on the night.
Really, McGregor shouldn’t have fought that night due to injury he sustained to the same area that he had treated following the Holloway decision win. There was a different aggression to him in the lead up to the bout, and the win not only established him as a man who could easily handle pressure and perform under adversity, it also proved that he was loyal to his Irish subjects.
Later, his striking coach Owen Roddy would say that the UFC 189 camp was basically about getting McGregor through the camp and into the fight because of how injured he was. Both McGregor and his camp would say that he would look like a different fighter against Aldo when they were slated for a unification bout on December 12, but the MMA world was forced to wait for another five months before we would able to prove or disprove their sentiments.
The Final Countdown
On fight week, Aldo just seemed to be in a completely different mental space than he had been on the World Tour. His interactions with McGregor were far more muted and during their first face off at the press conference last Wednesday, McGregor even bowed at Aldo after they first stood toe to toe.
For the open workouts on Thursday, the champion methodically went about his business as some Irish fans jeered him about his rib injury and impending doom at the hands of the self-proclaimed ‘Irish King.’ In the media circles, the press seemed to be swaying from a McGregor win to a victory for Aldo, and the event’s weigh-in gave some reason to bolster their argument.
Before they went out and registered their championship weight of 145 lbs, the headline pairing stood in front of each other. They nodded their heads promising that they were both ready, and when they took to the stage in the MGM Grand Garden Arena it was clear that the party was in full swing.
McGregor elicited a big roar from the Irish as he twisted into his usual muscle clenching posture on the scales, having stripped off a t-shirt that read ‘Champion’ in gold lettering. Aldo came out cool, calm and collected, but his demeanor changed completely after registering his weight.
Adopting the same pose that McGregor has at Thursday’s press conference, he riled McGregor who took a second to come into his own. He threw some pulled kicks in Aldo’s direction, which forced Dana White to separate the championship duo. There were plenty of people who felt the Brazilian did not impact McGregor at all during the interaction, but based on Aldo becoming a slight favourite on the Vegas book afterwards, there must have been a lot of people that saw some blemishes in the UFC interim champion’s usual steely front.
McGregor has always looked very light on the scales, but due to the championship being up for grabs the talk of his body and gaunt face were more rampant than ever after the weigh-in. After the Irish put forward so much confidence, you could tell there were still some hang-ups at the eleventh hour based on the exchange last Friday, but there were a lot more signs to come that it might not be Conor’s night by the time the two would eventually meet in the Octagon.
The Holy Grail
It just wasn’t going well for us last weekend.
Artem Lobov had become one of the most dangerous TUF contestants in history according to Dana White, having knocked out his three opponents on route to the final of the 22nd installment of the series. Although he was given a second chance on the back of his decision loss to Mehdi Baghdad in the elimination rounds, ‘The Russian Hammer’ had definitely proven his worth.
Instead of Saul Rogers, his initial dance partner for the tournament’s finale, due to legal issues Ryan Hall was put in his place. Each swing of the Russian’s hammers were punished in the bout, and in the end, Hall won a one-sided decision, halting what the Irish had planned as a warm-up celebration.
At UFC 194 on Saturday, the Brazilian’s were having a great day. Although it was the Irish chants that the international audiences were looking forward to, the Brazilians in the crowd bellowed out their enthusiasm as Leonardo Santos, Warlley Alves and Demian Maia tagged on precious wins to their event tally.
Maia’s win was more spectacular than the others based on the man that stood across the cage from him. Two of the best grapplers on the UFC’s books, the world waited for an ebbing and flowing exchange of ‘arte suave’, but Maia completely dominated McGregor’s teammate Gunnar Nelson with superior control over three rounds. The ‘uh vai morrer’ chant certainly beat the Ole, Ole, Ole’ of the Irish during the proceedings. Even when ‘Jacare’ Souza lost against Yoel Romero, the Brazilian masses could always argue that a crucial point could have been taken from the Cuban who grabbed the cage and forced a stoppage in the bout at one stage.
Both McGregor and Aldo entered the bout like the champions that they were. McGregor wore specially designed green compression trunks for the occasion and the swells in the lungs of the arena were enormous as he waved to the crowd on his arrival in the Octagon. Aldo looked intense as ever as he stood under a spotlight in his usual pose–with his head shaking as he looked at the ground, he bounced up on his toes in anticipation of the first bell.
On McGregor’s first solid connection with his patented left hand, Aldo face planted into the ground and as his lifeless body rolled over, he ate two more hammer fists before referee John McCarthy stopped the action.
In thirteen seconds McGregor cemented his place in UFC history. Beating Ronda Rousey by one second to claim the fastest championship finish of all time, he also beat his previous gate record at the arena with his flash KO. He bounced to the end of the fence where he climbed and simulated throwing money to the crowd before putting up his two middle fingers, a motion that sparked a million debates about his relationship with UFC.
He thanked the fans, his team, his family and Aldo, but ‘The Notorious’ was far from finished with the weekend.
His arrival at the post-fight press conference signaled every other fighter to leave the podium, and taking up his place on the pedestal usually commandeered by UFC president Dana White, he read out his manifesto.
McGregor wants to be the first to hold and defend two UFC titles simultaneously and although it seems unlikely that the promotion will do that at this stage, the Irishman has made the projections of his doubters look very silly in the past. He jokingly claimed that he wanted to reach Mayweather versus Pacquiao numbers too, and even though that might seem far-fetched, so does a man collecting social welfare in April 2013 becoming a multi-millionaire and one of the most talked about athletes in the world by December 2015. He promised us ‘a new era of fighting’ ahead of the bout, and the things he plans to do on the back of his marvellous win could certainly usher that in.
The 27-year-old Crumlin man has the power to change his sport. His ability to take MMA, a sport no one had heard of before his debut, and make it a part of the Irish vernacular in less than three years is absolutely unbelievable, and it takes equally unbelievable actions like his 13-second dispatch of Aldo to get that kind of attention.
Those who oppose McGregor and MMA might still have their gripes about what happened on Saturday night, but for those in attendance and the others who watched around the world, they witnessed the defining sporting moment for a whole generation of Irish people as McGregor stood over the previously untouchable UFC champion.
@PetesyCarroll
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