This week has seen the UFC 189 World Tour come to a tumultuous conclusion in Dublin, a suitable end for what has been a frenzied tour. Those of us not fortunate enough to call Rio de Janeiro, Boston, New York, London or Dublin home followed the UFC Featherweight champion Jose Aldo and his would-be successor, Conor McGregor, around the globe through the lens of the UFC Embedded video series.
Regardless of whether your loyalties lie with the current undisputed king of the 145-pound division or the self-appointed heir to his throne, there is no arguing that the series hasn’t made for captivating viewing.
The Jose Aldo that greeted Conor McGregor’s post-UFC Fight Night Boston’s cageside threats with the dispassionate laughter of a man only too familiar with the naïve cockiness of yet another untested challenger was transformed into a snarling, ill-at-ease Aldo who looked to be nearing the end of his tether.
Conor McGregor appeared, as ever, to be a man intent on burrowing into the mind of his opponent and making himself comfortable until the time comes to step into the Octagon again and show the world his seemingly infallible powers of prophecy. Yes, the tour was indubitably entertaining but it did bring to mind a pressing question: have McGregor’s mind games gone too far?
It is this very question that has this week divided both die-hard MMA fans and the more casual variety of fan who has taken their seat aboard the McGregor band-wagon. In the last two years, the world of mixed martial arts has become well-acquainted with the braggadocious Irish brawler: his press conferences tend to add a bit of panache and colour to the formulaic and repetitive slew of media events, stare-offs and weigh-ins that accompany every UFC event. He often delivers bold predictions as regards fight outcomes, belittling his opponents in no uncertain terms whilst reminding us all that we are faced with whom he sees as the Messiah of MMA… himself. We expect this brand of brash showmanship from Conor McGregor, indeed many of us savour it.
On the UFC 189 World Tour however, McGregor took his showmanship to a whole new level, a level some have branded as unacceptable and reprehensible. The Dublin native’s antics at his hometown event in particular drew far more than the usual chagrin from his many naysayers: during the course of the Dublin ‘presser’ McGregor swiped Aldo’s featherweight title from the champion’s table and held it aloft, to the uncontainable glee of the assembled Irish. McGregor’s critics, meanwhile, looked on in disdain at what they saw as a display of utter disrespect for a much-loved champion.
This was not the first time that McGregor had managed to get his hands on Aldo’s prized belt; only days previously viewers of the UFC Embedded series had seen him taunt Aldo with his own title whilst the Brazilian conducted an interview on the other side of a separating pane of glass.
The calm and dismissive manner in which Aldo waved away this first incidence of temerity on McGregor’s part was a world apart from his enraged reaction to his belt being snatched from beneath his very eyes for a second time in Dublin. The UFC President, Dana White, whose principal role during the tour had been to keep the fighters a comfortable distance apart during face-offs using his hands, was forced to use his considerable bulk as a bollard to keep a furious Aldo from McGregor while at the same time attempting to retrieve the belt from the Irishman’s clutches.
It wasn’t just McGregor’s sticky fingers that drew widespread criticism (minds out of the gutter, gentlemen). It was the fact that he flagrantly broke the one stipulation of Aldo and his coach, their golden rule: do not touch Jose. Many will argue that this is an unwritten rule of sport itself, touching an opponent outside of the sporting arena is simply a no-no.
Yet, the cameras rolled for episode 5 of Embedded and thanks to the innocence of a talk show producer who assumed professionals will in fact act professionally, McGregor was seated directly behind Aldo for a TV interview. Like a child in a sweet shop, the brazen McGregor wasted no time in reaching out and giving his soon-to-be opponent’s neck a friendly squeeze, a move which was met with a decidedly unfriendly response.
This brings us back to my original question: have McGregor’s promotional tactics and mind games overstepped the boundaries of acceptable sporting behaviour? Many of the tweets I saw regarding the topic drew on the suggestion that you simply would not see an athlete in another sport touching his opponent against his wishes or lauding his opponent’s title about with complete disregard for his sporting counterpart.
While it is true that is somewhat difficult to picture a screaming Roger Federer brandishing Novak Djokovic’s Wimbledon title in the Royal Box on Centre Court, the allegation that it would never happen in another sport is simply not true. While I cannot bring to mind a specific occasion, and perhaps there has not been one to date (although I would be highly dubious at this possibility), I would be wholly unsurprised to see one of boxing’s more audacious showmen grabbing an opponent’s belt if he had the chance and if he felt it would be worthy of those ever-important column inches. Furthermore, I can personally attest to seeing numerous boxers puckering up and planting a kiss on the firstly unsuspecting, and very quickly unconsenting lips of an opponent during a stare-down.
This illustrates a point perfectly: combat sports like mixed martial arts and boxing are simply not like other sports. While the aftermath of a fight may bring out the nobler and more genteel side of pugilists and mixed martial artists in the form of hugs and applause for the man who only minutes before had been doing his (or indeed her) utmost to decapitate them, the lead-up to a fight is often a tense, even aggressive affair.
This peculiar contrast of interactions is present to an extent in all competitive endeavours of course, but nowhere else is this contrast so pronounced as in the world of blood-sports. After all, a certain level of aggression is required when, in simple terms, the most desirable outcome in a fight is to have your opponent laid out before you unconscious.
It should also be remembered that fighters will be looking to uncover any psychological weaknesses they can in their opponent in the lead-up to battle. Whilst I am not attempting to offer a blanket excuse that justifies any behaviour exhibited by a boxer whilst on the promotional trail, if a fighter senses that his opponent wouldn’t take kindly to certain behaviours, then why not exploit that?
Professionals at the top level should remain level-headed in the face of behaviour the likes of which Conor McGregor has been engaging in during the World Tour; psychological warfare is the order of the day in modern sports, and if you feel you are weak mentally then address that like you would with any other competitive weakness – target it and improve. If you need to enlist the help of a sports psychologist, then do so. The mind should be a weapon of the modern-day athlete, not an Achilles’ heel.
A more important point to make about behaviour in the lead-up to fights that would be judged to be completely irredeemable in other sports is that boxing and MMA are, at the highest echelons of each sport, pay-per-view. In a business where it’s not just about getting asses in seats but asses on couches and credit cards out from the pockets of these asses, theatre and pantomime are key. For this is what combat sports are at the end of the day, pantomime for adults.
Do not be mistaken, even if Conor McGregor was twice the fighter he is yet was humble and unassuming in his self-promotion, he would most certainly not be three months away from fighting for the UFC Featherweight Championship of the World. He would not have produced his own six part RTÉ documentary, and he would almost definitely not be the talk of the MMA world. It is a somewhat unfortunate truth that although talent may talk, money screeches, hollers and bellows.
For those of you who cannot help but feel sympathetic for the target of Conor McGregor’s dramatics, don’t. While it’s perhaps difficult not to feel at least a modicum of sympathy for a champion who has not been defeated in ten years yet who has been lampooned and at times humiliated by what critics would call McGregor’s impersonations of a court jester, our sympathies are misguided. For although Aldo must bear with McGregor’s taunts and slights a while longer, even if he suffers the agony of defeat come July 11th he will be earning a pretty penny for his troubles.
As suggested by MMA Journalist of the Year, Ariel Helwani, Conor McGregor is the perfect foil to Jose Aldo, particularly from a financial point of view. Thanks to both the fanfare and vilification McGregor has garnered and the media coverage and pay-per-view figures that undoubtedly follow, Aldo can look forward to a vastly increased pay cheque after UFC 189, win or lose. After all, McGregor is box-office, of that there is no denying.
For a man whom reportedly cribbed at the Los Angeles press conference held on March 24th that “I will always complain…I will always want to earn more. This is the right that I have, so I’m going to continue doing this,” it is highly unlikely that despite feigned protests, Aldo is anything but grateful to the UFC’s matchmakers for setting up what many 145 pound fighters see as a premature title shot for McGregor.
It would be a shame to dirty an article by ending with a cliché, yet whether you love him or you wish he would find his way under the wheels of the 216 bus, Conor McGregor’s accelerated career path and bloated bank accounts will continue to show that there’s no such thing as bad press.
By Killian Down – @KillianDown
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