THERE ARE FEW Irish exports who look quite as comfortable with the glitz and sparkle of US television as Conor McGregor.
Last night, the Dubliner once again proved a polished performer when he sat down in a glittering dinner jacket to chat with prime time talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.
In the short clip above, McGregor tells the host about his love of the ‘crazy, outer body experience: beating people up for lots of money.’
Kimmel also takes a minute to delve into McGregor’s past, and the 27-year-old presents a picture of himself on the football field.
Growing up, society tells you you should fantasise about kicking a ball – I tried to pretend I was interested in it. But really; kicking a ball straight into a net is pretty cool, but what happens if somebody runs up behind me and hits me two shots into the mouth? Then it ain’t so cool.”
Something tells us, the young Conor McGregor wasn’t quite zen enough to consider accepting late tackles and off the ball whacks as simply part of the game.
Four of the top nine stories on The42 this morning are McGregor related. I like the guy, and I’m looking forward to the fight, but it’s completely saturating the site at this stage. Surely a few of them could be merged.
Don’t read them then ! Keep them coming
McGregor must have shares in the site at this stage.
I think he’s got more stories in one day than the tennis and golf majors have gotten all year on this sports site!
Is your thumb alright ??? Sorry to hear about your the trouble to had this morning.
I feel the same about the soccer coverage. The site is truly saturated with them. Just yesterday they had 20 soccer stories and 17 other sports stories.
But I don’t moan about it I just scroll past the soccer stories as they don’t interest me,
Was it 20 story’s about the same soccer team?
Marcus if people (yourself included) stop clicking on and reading/commenting on these articles then they will dry up. From me personally I thank you for keeping them popular so that we can get more of them, I’m loving the build up.
Hi Anthony they weren’t, point taken. But McGregor is in a title fight in less 2 weeks. If there was a Champions League Final with Manchester and Munich in it I’m sure the majority of the stories would revolve around Manchester in the build up.
Maybe some actual feedback in a comment is constructive, Teddington? I’m happy to read the articles, I’d just love if they were amalgamated into one or two, and not every second story on the site. There were 5 articles in the space of 14. I can’t see why they wouldn’t merge them.
And what difficulty did this cause you? You said you wanted to read them so I’m confused
The fight doesn’t take place for another nine days, so anything that is reported at the moment is about what he’s saying, what he’s doing, what he’s wearing, who he’s with. Which, for McGregor, interests people. And that is fine. It’s when it starts becoming a new article for each of these stories that it becomes saturating. When I opened The 42 this morning, I saw that four of the most recent stories were all about McGregor. Not UFC, not MMA, just McGregor. It’s essentially breaking down every thing he is doing into a new article. He goes on a TV show and says something? Article. He goes on a conference call and says something? Article. One of his fighters gets a good draw in TUF? Article (with a headline referencing McGregor, not Lobov). I’m not bemoaning the amount of coverage he’s getting, I’m saying that there’s no need to create new articles every time he says or does something. Stick them all in one or two articles a day and be done with it.
What’s the story with the sparkly suit?
Creatine laden yobs, giving each other brain damage for money.
Now thats entertainment.
The human race has came a long way.
I creatine is very helpful when you are trying to make 145. But great comment otherwise, insightful like.
Why does McGregor always sound like he’s talking to people that don’t understand English? He sounds like an Irish tourist asking for directions in China.
He’s toning down his accent for a foreign audience, As is your example of a tourist in China
Oooooooorrrrr,
he’s trying to come across a large some kind of pseudo-intellectual guru with a profound understanding of the human condition which belies his violent tendencies in the hope of fuelling his media-driven career trajectory.
But your suggestion is good too.
He says himself that if you hear him talking about anything other than fighting, pay no heed to him, fighting is all he know. Cant fault him that other people like watching the one thing he’s into.
Maybe he’s partially deaf from all the beatings.
Did you see what’s left of his ears?
The negative comments keep the articles popular. There are more comments on this article than in the three recent football articles combined. A journalist wouldn’t want to write an article if no one comments on it. We are rubbish at football, all we have are guys following English clubs. Football articles should be excluded from this site because of that. We have two potential world champions in MMA. Keep the comments coming people.
I put it to you that football is considerably more popular than mixed martial art/no holds barred thuggery. MMA/nhbt is very much a minority sport, somewhere below greyhound racing or cricket in participation levels. It gets publicity because of the flash Harrys and pimp characters that are involved in it.
Donal, lol. You don’t see mma fighters kicking a football around in the middle of a fight but you see football players fighting in the middle of a match very often. We all know who the thugs are. Every third level institution in the country has martial arts clubs. It’s a very popular sport.
Yes Gary. We are awful at football. That’s why we just beat the world champions and qualified for Euro 2016.
Well said Donald totally agree football is by far more popular, I’m sure if you looked into it majority of the mma fans in Ireland only took interest in mma and ufc when mcgregor started to make a name for himself.
Andy same could be said of majoriry of fans of majority sports, rugby going mainstream on the back of munster and leinster euro success could be an example… nothing wrong with people getting excited about mma because of conor.
I know Rob I agree I was just referring to garys suggestion that football should be excluded from the site I think that’s ridiculous to suggest that because all in all football is one of the most popular sports in the world a lot more people take interest in football than mma but I agree with you that there’s no harm liking any sport
Just the 5 mcgregor articles today
Could be worse ! Could be 5 articles about Arsenal u langer
He’s on the crest of a huge wave. Biggest fight in ufc history
Biggest fight in ufc history till the next biggest fight in UFC history…
Ufc history…not exactly going back to the dawn of time is it?
The universe is 3.7 billion years old, please forgive the UFC them for their tardiness.
13.7 pardon my my terrible , terrible error.
Everything is the biggest until the next biggest, that’s what statistics and records are you muppet
UFC is just WWE lite. It’s staged and managed in such a way to create guess, rivalries, storylines and ultimately revenue. It’s hyped as real but in reality it’s just a cheaper version of WWE which in fairness, doesn’t pretend to be something it isn’t.
Yawn
You’re absolutely correct. I have never seen such a fake kick to the head as Rhonda Rousey got a few weeks ago. The way she fell and pretended she was knocked out was so clearly fake but you and me both know she was just having 40 winks!! Wink, Wink!
,
I think we have just witnessed pure, unadulterated, concentrated nonsense in this comment. I suppose you think ‘shaymus’ is more of a hero to Ireland than Conor? Still watching WWE and you’re and adult, that must be worrying for your girlfriend and family. Make sure you don’t miss the rest of your shows, fair city, home and away and Melrose place.
Two lads baaaeetttin’ the heads of each other… Just have to go out to a chipper in Neilstown any night of the week to see that….
Cathal it’s fake and you know it, like thousands of other fans and UFC wannabes you just can’t face the reality that it’s not even a sport. Why is it not in the Olympics if it’s a sport?
Re read my comment, where do I say a WWE “champion” is an Irish hero? I merely pointed out that WWE doesn’t claim to be something it’s not. UFC does!!
No seamus, I don’t know it’s fake. I challenge you to find any evidence, dubious or otherwise, that asserts ufc is a fake sport. Maybe there is corruption and play acting to stoke the interests of the fans but it wouldn’t be any different from any other sport nowadays.
The rain is bringing all the trolls out.
Simply watch Henderson v shogun – if you still think it’s fake after that let me know and I’ll personally book you in for a check up
Recent claims by Decorated former UFC fighters Wanderlei Silva and Brock Lesnar seem to cast doubt on the legitimacy of UFC as a serious sport.
There is no world governing body, it is a corporate entity. This fact alone casts serious aspersions on the integrity of UFC. It is run by money men for money men, not the good of the sport.
A fake sport, run by money men to empty pockets of mugs to fill the pockets of shareholders. It’s a joke.
Seamus, why don’t you ask Ronda if that head kick by Holly, the one that nearly crushed her larynx and left her a crumpled mess on the canvas, is fake.
Seamus, like boxing it is regulated by state athletic commissions.
Rugby is only back in the olympics after 92 years.
Was it fake all that time?
Katie Taylor has won more than he’ll ever win! I hope Aldo breaks his jaw, that might shut the mouth up!
Katie Taylor is an amateur fighter.
Let’s hope nobody injures your thumbs malcolm or you wouldn’t be able to be keyboard tough!
Agreed
Different sports so shouldn’t be compared,
If you want to go down that road let’s throw in Roy Keane, Sonia o’sullivan,AP McCoy etc as all being ‘better’ that Conor.
I hear Daniel O’donnell has had more number 1 hits than Conor. Shame on you Conor – time to up your game
So what if she’s an Amateur, there’s still a world govern body over it, you can’t say the same for mma! A dude with a girls name governs that! In anyways I hope Aldo shuts him up!
Still a young sport but a governing body will be around at some stage and the main reason will be to allow for fights across multiple organisations.
You seem to know as much about MMA as John snow and we all know how much that fella knows.
The sport is regulated by state athletic commissions in the states. Same as pro boxing.
A world body governs the professional women’s boxing too, still dont get the point you are trying to make.
He’s got more stories than Walt Disney
Big mouth, small brain.
Paul, don’t put yourself down like that. :)
Really looking forward to the fight…Conor’s biggest test to date… Mendes fight hopefully brought him on even more..
Go Conor. You’re doing your country proud. I know I slow down my speech when speaking to people in other countries. Living in the US I do this daily. It’s just good manners
He works hard,is successful rich and Irish,yet people hate him,why?
Did anyone else read that whole article in McGregor’s voice?!
Blah blah blah
love his voice…he should do every audiobook imaginable
Both McGregor and Aldo in recent interviews seemed in good form. This is going to be a great fight.
I think he’s great. He works hard and deserves all his success. Best of luck in his fight. Why people have to slag him off I don’t know. You would think they would support one of their own.