There’s much more to Conor McGregor than just his abilities as a fighter.
An artist will never become truly great without innovating. You can either accept the supposed limitations of your chosen field and target the ceiling, or change the game completely for boundless potential.
The latter was achieved by the Wright Brothers with aviation, Steve Jobs with the personal computer and now McGregor is doing it with MMA.
Before the Notorious came on the scene spitting venom with his acerbic-tongue, MMA was all about the fighting. Sure, there were certain trash-talkers who made waves in the sport, the likes of Chael Sonnen and Rampage Jackson spring to mind, but no one managed to master the art of mental warfare quite like the Dubliner.
McGregor’s psychological warfare brought a new element to the sport. To paraphrase the man himself, people say he’s all talk, but he always backs it up. He makes these bold predictions such as knocking an undefeated champion out in one round, and then actually doing it.
He quickly rose from a relative unknown in the sport (outside of Europe) to this marketable powerhouse superstar that has been assembling an army of fans. The charismatic Irishman’s antics outside the cage have allowed him to become one of the most popular figures in the sport, and this has undeniably aided him on his endeavor of becoming the greatest.
When McGregor walked out to the Octagon at UFC 194, he had the vast majority of the impassioned crowd on his side. Jose Aldo, the first and up until that point, only champion of the division was greeted with jeers and boos as he made his way to the cage.
This seems to be the exact same thing that happens whenever McGregor fights, regardless of where it is in the world. There’s no way this atmosphere of intimidation McGregor creates for each fight doesn’t chip away at his opponent’s confidence, which has been consistently weakened with every insult the Notorious has thrown their way in the build up to the fight.
Some people confuse McGregor’s extreme confidence with delusion, but really it stems from the knowledge that he’s done all the grunt work in the gym to become the well-rounded mixed martial artist that we saw reach the zenith of a global sport.
This unwavering belief in his own ability coupled with the evidence of his spectacular performances inside the Octagon have helped shape him into a champion.
That’s not even to mention the innovation he’s done as a fighter, in terms of using unorthodox, deceptive movement to set up that killer left hand.
