Conor McGregor was never going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
A student of the fight game and having witnessed how a truly polarising nature, coupled with a gift for public speaking, can translate directly to financial success for prize-fighters, McGregor played up his persona in a big way but while his trash-talking saw him cross over into the mainstream to an unprecedented degree, it’s hard to question his achievements as a fighter.
You’re allowed to hate McGregor. A lot of people do. But as Maya Angelou once said, “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
That feeling is not exclusive to positivity. McGregor will live long in the minds of those who have, for years, held a visceral dislike for him.
As for his most adoring fans – many of whom are equal parts hilarious and unbearable on social media – they will never forget the rush of adrenaline that coursed through their veins when they watched Jose Aldo faceplant out of his featherweight belt at UFC 194 or the combination of confusion and disappointment at the sight of McGregor tapping out.
Like no other mixed martial artist before him, McGregor ensured that potential pay-per-view buyers had an emotional investment in his fights, whether it was to see him knock an opponent unconscious or to watch him get humbled in the Octagon.
He made sure there was no indifference towards him and that’s always been the key to maximising earnings in combat sports.
On Tuesday morning, McGregor announced his retirement from mixed martial arts and while it remains entirely possible that it is no more than a repeat of his cheesy 2016 power play, it makes you wonder what kind of legacy the divisive Irishman would leave behind if he has decided to hang up his gloves for good.
How will we remember McGregor and how will we explain him to our children?
Some will argue that McGregor’s brushes with the law have irreparably damaged his legacy but to those people, I point you in the direction of Floyd Mayweather, who served three months in jail and yet remains in the GOAT discussion, or Mike Tyson, who spent almost three years in prison but is now beloved by many for his roles in movies like The Hangover, or his colleague Jon Jones, who has been no no stranger to controversy in the past.
Whether you like it or not, people tend to forget things and McGregor, who has been involved in several indiscretions such as the Brooklyn bus attack, the UFC 229 melee and the recent altercation with a fan over a mobile phone, is going to go down as one of the greatest mixed martial artists in history.
From a skill perspective, few possessed the kind of knockout power that McGregor did at 145lbs and when you consider the fact that the argument about the greatest featherweight of all time boils down to three names, it must be noted that McGregor beat both Jose Aldo and Max Holloway.
Then you look at achievements in the Octagon. McGregor became the first fighter in UFC history to simultaneously hold titles in two different weight classes when he knocked out Eddie Alvarez in 2016. He is one of only three fighters to win in the UFC’s featherweight, lightweight and welterweight divisions. He is responsible for headlining five of the UFC’s six most successful pay-per-views of all time. With six Performance of the Night honours, the shortest title fight win in UFC history and some of the most iconic knockouts in MMA’s ever-expanding highlight reel, McGregor has definitely left some tough tasks ahead for successors who feel like they can top the Irishman’s impact.
The lack of a title defence is always hung over McGregor’s head by those who don’t believe that he deserves to be discussed in the same breath as the Georges St-Pierres, Anderson Silvas and Jon Joneses of this world and this is not to say that he is ahead of those names in the GOAT discussion because I firmly believe that he’s not.
But he is definitely in the top 10, in spite of the fact that he never defended a world title.
McGregor played by his own rules and was not beholden to the UFC’s traditional desire to have a champion defend his title because no sooner had he lifted a belt than a new, more lucrative opportunity presented itself.
After he claimed featherweight gold, McGregor set his sights on bouncing between 145lbs and 155lbs by targeting the lightweight title which was then held by Rafael dos Anjos but with the unpredictable nature of MMA, ‘The Notorious’ ended up fighting short-notice replacement Nate Diaz at 170lbs instead and because the first Diaz fight took place at welterweight, McGregor was keen to replicate those exact conditions for the rematch.
McGregor then returned to his plan to become lightweight champion and did that by destroying Alvarez on the feet and it was then that the chance to share the ring with Floyd Mayweather arrived at McGregor’s doorstep and he was never going to turn down that payday, regardless of how unlikely the upset was.
And after losing his boxing debut, McGregor could never be accused of looking for an easy return to MMA because he accepted a title fight against one of the most feared fighters on the planet in Khabib Nurmagomedov.
McGregor is a lot of things but he’s never been one to fear a challenge.
One look back to his casual acceptance of fighting Chad Mendes instead of Aldo at UFC 189 is proof that he’s always been willing to fight whoever is put in front of him and that early attitude earned him plenty of leeway from UFC President Dana White.
McGregor has done a lot of things wrong in recent years but when you simply look at what he’s managed as a UFC fighter, few will leave a more lasting legacy.
American MMA reporter Luke Thomas recently responded to news of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar wanting to distance himself from McGregor after the pair appeared together at the Chicago St Patrick’s Day parade by questioning why McGregor wasn’t universally adored in Ireland.
It is an interesting one because if anything, one would imagine that his own countrymen and women would be the ones behind him through thick and thin while one would expect America to come down hard on a foreigner coming in, breaking their laws.
There are several reasons why McGregor is not embraced by everyone on these shores but given the size of Ireland, Irish people’s attitude towards ‘The Notorious’ will be a mere footnote when the history books of MMA are written because he has captured a global audience which, in some cases, does not get to hear about every little move made by McGregor back home in the same way that we do.
McGregor has not fought in Ireland in five years and the fact that some feel that he has not represented his country well with his behaviour outside the Octagon will hardly cause a dent in his overarching legacy as a world-renowned fighter who dragged an underground sport into the mainstream.
He played a significant role in persuading WME-IMG to acquire the UFC for $4 billion, he has almost single-handedly raised the pay ceiling for champions and high-profile fighters in the UFC, his controversies meant that he was always in the headlines, his knockouts will see him feature on highlight reels for years to come and his many quips in interviews and press conferences will almost define the current UFC era.
