We’ve been here before.
This is what Conor McGregor does, he throws a rock in your pond.
Of course, he’s got a fair bit of talent to go along with that but if you so much as give the Dubliner a hint that you’re rattled, he’ll finish you.
For most of The Notorious’ MMA career, he’s won the physical confrontation, he’s dominated technically, and he’s won the mental battle too. In his training camps, he looks after those first two elements and he looks after them well. The war of the mind is won under the bright lights though, when everyone is watching.
McGregor is the king of bringing chaos. He disrupts the mental state and physical preparation of his opponents and rains madness and thunder down on top of them before they even step into the octagon and, somehow, his pond remains a picture of beautiful serenity. Like a lake so smooth it’s like ice. Ice cold.
McGregor doesn’t lose sight of what he has to or wants to do. The men who face him do though.
His dismantling of Jose Aldo – one of the greatest of all time – was simply astounding. It was monumental what he had done to the Brazilian long before they even got to trade blows. On their world tour together, McGregor was loud, obnoxious, playing to the gallery, insulting, disrespectful and Aldo grew to hate him.
By the time they eventually got to step in to fight each other at the second time of asking, it was more than just a fight for the South American. It was personal.
The weight of losing to this man – once just an audacious character before he became champ – was resting firmly and heavily on Aldo’s tense shoulders.
The desire to shut him up was too great to focus, no matter how much he tried to ignore all the craziness and noise around him.
It was an easy target for McGregor. Aldo was one of the best and he deserved more respect but he allowed those thoughts to consume him when he should’ve just been treating it as another fight and another opponent. Instead, he made it emotional.
He made it emotional only to find that, by the time the Irishman had made it to the octagon, he was completely detached from the build-up and the personality before him. It was just a moving target and he came in to hit it.
Ice cold.
Eddie Alvarez is another champion, another good fighter, but just another man falling for the game.
Ever since UFC 205 was announced and McGregor targetted a second belt, he has assassinated Alvarez’ mindframe with a classic series of rocks into the pond which may as well feel like grenades hitting the surface now.
First press conference and McGregor tells Alvarez to shut the f**k up. HE runs this town.
Alvarez wants to be respected ahead of Mystic Mac’s prediction so he interrupts with a “be careful”.
Psyched-out level on a scale of one to Aldo: Not quite Nate Diaz couldn’t give a toss levels but pretty low.
Tries to brush off McGregor’s taunts.
Psyched-out level on a scale of water off a duck’s back to sweat dripping off Aldo’s forehead: About 3.5.
Then… he engages.
Psyched-out level: Big mistake.
Tries to laugh off crowd’s support for McGregor’s words. Immediately regrets it.
Psyched-out level: Oh, bollocks.
Then he has to listen to the Irish fans chant ‘Conor’… in New York.
Psyched-out level from thinking you’ll have the east coast behind you to everyone can f**k off: What the hell is happening here?
McGregor doesn’t show up for pre-fight conference, Alvarez cracks up with fans.
Psyched-out level: Who does he think he is?
Alvarez waits. McGregor dances.
Psyched-out level from dancing your own tune to dancing to someone else’s: I WILL NOT BE A FIGURE OF RIDICULE!
Alvarez reacts to McGregor taking his belt.
Except he takes the wrong belt back.
Psyched-out level: spcj*($dnje!!#@£!!
Alvarez feels disrespected.
“It’s really disrespectful,” he said. “To be late for something of this magnitude is really disrespectful.
“You should be on time for everything, regardless if you think you’re the show. You should be on time.”
(Skip to 34 seconds below)
Psyched-out level: Is that you, Jose?
Then, the face-off.
As part of the chaos, Alvarez doesn’t know what the f**k he is looking at.
He’s talking smack, looking for engagement, then trying to laugh it off.
He gets nothing back but a stoney-faced look from a relaxed figure with his hands in his pockets.
McGregor doesn’t need to do any more talking. He doesn’t need to do one thing more. His work is done and he’s ready to start the real work.
Alvarez isn’t. He’s distracted. He’s scrambling. He’s psyched-out.
All that’s left for Eddie is to celebrate to the crowd who are booing him.
All that’s left for McGregor is to finish him off.
This has been another pre-fight masterpiece.
