This would tingle the spine of the spineless.
Saturday night in Las Vegas was monumental.
History was made. UFC history. Irish history.
Conor McGregor proved the doubters wrong. He won a belt. He cemented himself as one of the finest in the business.
And he did it with the backing of a nation. In the MGM Grand where it felt like the entire nation had manage to shoehorn themselves into.
The Irish had the Vegas arena shaking on its hinges and, long into the night, they celebrated the country’s newest hero.
But it wasn’t just us who thought the moment – and the hours after it – was magic. It wasn’t just us who took heart and pride in what was a whole group of people coming together to celebrate and to loudly announce their arrival on a stage that had largely been ignored in these parts pre-Conor McGregor.
In an absolutely wonderful piece for Bleacher Report, MMA writer Jeremy Botter penned a hair-raising account of what he saw on Saturday night. About how McGregor confirmed that he was the real deal and how the Irish made this an event that will never be forgotten.
“At first, they stayed, and that is saying something in and of itself,” the article reads. “Typical Vegas crowds will begin filing out of the MGM Grand Garden Arena immediately upon the conclusion of an event.
“Not this crowd. People stayed, at first in their seats, holding their Irish flags aloft in the air and singing songs. Then they moved, to the concourse and beyond, filling the depths of the MGM Grand casino with their festive sounds, stopping only to bounce up and down and throw beers and high-five.
“If you aren’t familiar with the word craic, it’s an Irish way of saying you are having a good time. And the Irish, who made Las Vegas just another version of Dublin on this night, were most certainly having good craic.
“Perhaps the best craic ever.”
Read the whole piece by Botter here. You won’t regret it.
