It’s hard to shake the feeling that this isn’t going to end well for Conor McGregor.
Conor McGregor has been mopping up attention since his UFC debut. However, more recently he has been receiving coverage from the world’s mainstream media for all the wrong reasons.
The major stunts he’s pulled outside of the cage are trending in a very worrying direction. Launching cans of energy drink at Nate Diaz’s entourage was bad. Leaping into the Bellator cage, shoving referee Marc Goddard and slapping a commission member was worse. Throwing a dolly through a bus window and injuring several people was worse again.
With little to no consequences for his actions so far, there is no reason to believe that the escalation will cease. If he continues on his current trajectory, we shudder to think what the next controversy will be.
It's always worth listening to DC #UFC223 https://t.co/CxGAzzSmET
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 9, 2018
Fighter’s mentality
Two-time UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir has a theory on why McGregor’s behaviour has taken such a downward spiral. He thinks it could be something to do with the mental aspect. As he explained to Fansided, an impaired judgement can be linked with a willingness to be locked inside a cage with monsters who are trying to render you unconscious.
“You can see this with any of our high-level athletes, the same brain that allows me to walk in there and fight in front of thousands of people in a scary situation, stare across from a Brock Lesnar, most people go, ‘Screw that, I’ll never do that.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.'”
“All of a sudden, that same brain you’re like, ‘Hey, have you had too much to drink?’ or ‘Maybe those guys over there… there’s 15 guys there that said something to your girl, maybe we shouldn’t walk over there.’ I’m walking over there. ‘No, we shouldn’t do that.’ I’m fucking going over there right now. Let’s go! You need that guy going, ‘No, no, no, no, no, that’s a bad idea! That’s a bad idea! We’ve got to slow you down.'”
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 17, 2018
Saying no
Mir’s wife Jennifer is also his manager. She has been a guiding voice in his career and in his life. He counts himself lucky that he has someone to tell him when he’s about to make a terrible mistake. He suspects this kind of figure is missing from McGregor’s life.
“That manager. Luckily, I married mine. Somebody that can sit there and go, ‘Whoa, Frank, that might not be the smartest move. There’s even times with social media and stuff where I’m like, ‘I can say this.’ And she’s like, ‘Frank, if you say that, you’re sleeping on the couch for the next month. So he needs that person in his life. Conor needs that person who is not worried about being fired, not worried about being dismissed… He made a huge mistake.”
When you’re close to one of the most powerful people in any given industry, it can be difficult to call them out on their shortcomings. Maybe McGregor was beyond convincing, but perhaps if the right person had told him throwing that dolly was a terrible idea, all the subsequent legal troubles and controversy would have been avoided.
