Under another set of circumstances things could be a lot different right now.
This time last year, Conor McGregor was days out from what would turn out to be a swift, 40-second TKO win against Donald Cerrone in what he announced was the first fight of his ‘2020 season’ — a year in which McGregor intended to compete multiple times.
Almost a year later, McGregor’s brief destruction of ‘Cowboy’ would be the only Octagon time he would have as the repercussions of the Coronavirus pandemic ravaged global sport. But here we are again, and a little over a week removed from his latest appearance in the cage McGregor was more than content in his body of work last year.
“2020 was a good year for me,” McGregor said exclusively to TheMacLife. “Highest pay-per-view, highest gate, fastest main event KO. I came back with a bang… 40 seconds. I want to focus on the positives. There’s some much negatives around. I would have loved to compete, I am a competitor at heart. I thrive under competition, it is where I do all of my best work.”
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Of course, prizefighters like to prizefight and while he says there certainly were more than a few frustrations in the past 12 months, McGregor likes how he sees 2021 rolling out in front of him.
“It was a little upsetting at times having to sit out 2020,” he said. “It is what it is, I’m very happy with how competition went in 2020. Here I am now back in 2021 to start the year again and there’s a lot of options. We’re not looking past Dustin, we’re not looking past anyone but we are certainly looking through him … we’re ready for this year in a big way.”
And with the future throwing up an almost endless list of opportunities and possibilities, McGregor’s return to action next weekend at UFC 257 in Abu Dhabi brings with it an air of familiarity. Six years ago at UFC 178 in Las Vegas, McGregor’s left hand brought an early end to his first meeting with Poirier and while that fight was marked by back-and-forth rancour in the build-up, not so now.
“We’re grown men now,” McGregor explains. “When I see what Dustin has been doing with his charity ‘The Good Fight Foundation’, I’m very excited to be able to help with that. There’s talk of them building a gym off the back of this fight and I’m very excited about that. All the power to them. This is what it should be about. It is our duty in this world to give back. That is it, you know? Every single one of us. As I get older I am just delving into that side of things a lot more. I just feel it is my duty, and I have been blessed in this position that I am in.
“I’m very happy to share the Octagon with Dustin who is also of the same mindset. It’s going to be a good bout. Similar with Donald, there will be blood spilled — but it will not be bad blood.”
Another angle from their previous meeting was that it represented the birth of ‘Mystic Mac’ when he delivered on his pre-fight prophecy of a first-round finish, so what says the UFC’s most prominent soothsayer about the remtch?
“The man who always gets it right, Mystic Mac,” he laughed. “He was born on the night of the first Poirier fight. However, Dustin is a tough competitor and I would love that also, to be honest. I would love a war. I would love to be in the mix with it and I am certainly ready for that, so let’s see. I will have landed devastating blows within that first 60 seconds. If Dustin can withstand and stay in there, more power to him and let’s get it on. Let’s put the gloves up and let’s go.”
Many in the mixed martial arts community, including both men in the UFC 257 main event, have questioned why next Saturday’s fight isn’t for the UFC lightweight title given the October retirement of Khabib Nurmagomedov and while this is an opinion that McGregor is sympathetic to.
“I feel it should be,” he said. “You know I don’t think Dana is going to be bouncing in to throw me a belt straight away with the way the year went but I understand that. The belts are… what are the belts, you know? I’m here to compete [and] get some good competition. The belts will come… There were circumstances surrounding the man scurrying away, to an extent. They’ve given him a bit of time. We’ll see what happens. It’s of no odds to me, I’m not going to get caught up in the politics of this business. I have in the past and it’s hampered me. We focus on the bout ahead and that’s it.”
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For now though, McGregor is concentrating on the task at hand.
“I would like to put in a stint at 155-pounds for sure. I came into the UFC as a featherweight and I went through the division. I gave my all in that division and I tore through it like a chainsaw through butter. Interim title, unified title. Then I went up and reached for greater heights in the lightweight division, became lightweight champion and became the first dual-weight champion in the company’s history.
“Then other things presented themselves regarding the Floyd fight and everything went where it went — and then I went to the welterweight division also. I never got a good stint at 155-pounds, a good consecutive stint like I done in the featherweight division. I’d like to do the same in the lightweight division that I did in the featherweight division… Give it a good run and tear through the division.”
