CONOR McGREGOR’S BIGGEST detractors have often questioned his ability to compete with elite wrestlers, but the Irish mixed martial arts star is eager to put those doubts to bed.
With a background in boxing, McGregor is one of the most impressive strikers in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Such has been the dominant nature of all five of his UFC wins so far, the Dubliner’s grappling hasn’t reared its head.
Although he’s shown glimpses of adept takedown defence, McGregor’s superb striking has got him to where he is today — one win away from being crowned the UFC’s featherweight world champion.
Some are adamant that McGregor’s weaknesses will be exposed when he goes up against a high-level grappler. That question might be answered when he takes on reigning title-holder Jose Aldo — a black belt in Brazilian jiu-itsu — in Las Vegas on 11 July.
But the top two contenders next in line in the UFC’s featherweight division — Frankie Edgar and Chad Mendes — are among the best wrestlers in the game, and McGregor is likely to cross paths with them eventually.
“That wrestler question is definitely one I want to answer,” McGregor told reporters in Las Vegas. “It’s a question the fans want answered, it’s a question the media want answered. How will he react?
“A guy asked me the other day, is it personal? Do you really want to get in and show everyone what you can do? It’s never personal, it’s business. Business is business, they want to see me tested against a wrestler. They believe that’s a question that’s yet to be answered. So if it’s good business, I’m in it.”
As for a potential meeting with Frankie Edgar or Chad Mendes, McGregor says he’s happy to fight either of them — if and when the opportunity arises — and isn’t too bothered about who’ll be first.
He said: “I think Frankie’s got a bit better boxing than [Chad Mendes], he puts his shots a little bit better than Chad. I think Chad is more just a wrestler with an overhand right. He swings his overhand, looks at the floor, closes his eyes and hopes for it to land.
“To me that’s novice. That’s day-one beginner stuff where I come from. Frankie’s a former champion but they’re both in the same bracket. It makes no difference. As long as I’m on the card, as long as it’s me fighting, it’s a big fight.”
Let the black card witch-hunt begin. Lead by the masters of cynical play Tyrone, big surprise!
Donegal not happy with it neither that’s their game plan out the window
Dublin won an All Ireland with it, Mayo did it to them the year before. Nobody is innocent here, Harte’s Tyrone got 3 All Irelands by playing in the rules of the game it’s up to the rest to put it up to them as all teams play with the same rules.
are you saying dublin won a championship with cynical play?
No, I’m saying Dublin played by the rules of the sport to win, Mayo did the same to get to two All Irelands and Tyrone did it to tie for Team of the Decade. You play to win or you don’t want it badly enough Paul.
I think the black card will effect Donegal and Tyrone more beacuse they play on the edge I dont agree with the blackcard anyway as if a incident is bad enough to send a player off its a redcard
Still think, given time, it will be positive. There’ll always be mistakes made, but you can see that body checking the third man runner has already been stamped out.
It was a poor decision from Goldrick, no getting away from it.
Coldrick made a mistake – get over it! The black card is a great idea for the first 65 minutes of a match – teams will still do what it takes to get a win so I can still see lads getting dragged down, etc. Being able to replace only the first 3 black cards helps in this regard.
You shouldn’t be able to replace a black carded player in the last 5 mins.
Yeah 2 people who argued against it before it was introduced saying the same thing after it has led to confusion.. can’t wait until further controversies effect your own teams and we then have you all backing the black card and not being critical of officials or rules at all as its only a tyrone and donegal thing obviously. ..
First Mickey heart, now Peter Canavan.
they see the writing on the wall daragh the two blackcards should have been redcards