Conor McGregor is, without a doubt, the best marketer in UFC history.
Whether you’re tuning in to watch him triumph or tuning in with the hope of seeing him get his ass kicked, you’re tuning in.
‘The Notorious’ has enjoyed unprecedented levels of success in hyping fights and his record breaking pay-per-view figures are hard evidence of that skill.
Once the cameras are on him, McGregor transforms into a machine of promo-cutting, opponent-riling, viewer-drawing brilliance.
But according to featherweight rival Jose Aldo, who was knocked out by McGregor at UFC 194, the Irishman is a different man off-camera.
“There are several times that I’ve seen him standing, facing the wall and staring at nothing with everyone trying to provoke him, and he’s almost glazed over,” Aldo recently told Portal Do Vale Tudo.
“He is a normal, quiet guy but if he sees a camera or an Irish fan nearby, the guy turns. Outside you see him laughing, joking, talking shit but talking normally… but then he spots a little camera or an Irish fan and he acts up in such a way that you think ‘you son of a bitch’.
“He is who he is. Sometimes you play jokes with him and he is laughing. There was one day we sat together and he asked if I wanted coffee. I said I wanted sugar and he answered in a way that it was all good.
“I met him recently at a hotel. He was eating breakfast and I said I wanted barbecue but he said it was his breakfast.
“But most of the time we encountered each other, there was always someone filming so he had to keep up his thing. With no camera, his face changes completely.”
It’s not altogether surprising to learn that McGregor wears a different mask when he is in front of the media as his goal is to ramp up interest in his fights.
Most trash-talkers in combat sports are probably really nice, respectful people away from the camera.
And while Aldo, who claimed the interim featherweight title when he defeated Frankie Edgar at UFC 200, conceded that there is not a lot of bad blood with his Dublin rival, he revealed that they simply stay out of each other’s way.
“(The relationship) is friendly and quiet,” Aldo said. “For me, I see no problem in the guy doing his marketing and after seeing the financial side, it was very good.
“I think we should have more fighters like him in the featherweight division because it would be very profitable but I am not his friend. He goes one way and I go the other.”
The new GAA Hour football podcast is here. Listen to Colm Parkinson, Senan Connell, and Barry Cahill dissect a classic between Dublin and Kerry. Subscribe here on iTunes.
