Conor McGregor has been compared to a lot of people in his five fights with the UFC.
His trash-talk has been compared to that of Chael Sonnen, his fight-hyping to that of Muhammad Ali and his skillset to that of Anderson Silva.
But the Irish featherweight phenomenon is adamant that he is one of a kind, denying any of those similarities.
“Look, every contest, they compare me to somebody new. I’ve been compared to Chael on many occasions, the Brazilians compare me to Chael.
“The Americans are trying to compare me to Muhammad Ali. I’ve been compared to Nick Diaz, I’ve been compared to Anderson Silva, I’ve been compared to everybody in the fight game. But I am just me.
“It’s just human nature. People look to relate you to somebody that they know, that they are familiar with. It’s just human nature, people do that, but time will tell that I am not any of them. I am me, and the next young kid that’s on his way up , he will be compared to me. This is human nature, but I am not Chael.”
A lot of McGregor naysayers have considered his braggadocio a crutch, a weakness that he is trying to cover up with his brash trash-talk. But The Notorious very much subscribes to the ‘haters gonna hate’ mentality.
“They’ve gotta tell themselves something: ‘He’s got this, because he can do this, it’s not because of what he can do better than me.’ Again, human nature.
“People will put it somewhere, so that it’s not eclipsing them. But it’s the whole package here, I don’t just talk the talk, I walk the walk, and that is it. You could bring any of the champions back — any of the people who where in the game before — back in my time, and I would still run the game.”
McGregor has the chance to run the game in his next fight when he attempts to be the first fighter to bring UFC gold back to Ireland in a featherweight title bout with long-time champion Jose Aldo at UFC 189 in July.
