Conor McGregor: UFC champion told his parents he would be a millionaire by 25 when he quit his job as a plumber
McGregor knocked out Aldo in 13 seconds to become the UFC featherweight champion last Saturday night
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Your support makes all the difference.Conor McGregor is that bloke in the movies who ducks out of the way of bullets, blocks baseball bats with his forearms and breaks jaws at the rate of ten per second before nipping home to read a bedtime story to the kids.
Were his nose a little straighter, his teeth a little whiter the former plumber from Dublin might put Jason Statham out of business as the pulp action hero so popular in the neighbourhood of Sunset and Vine.
On Saturday night, McGregor inflicted Jose Aldo’s first defeat in 10 years to capture his UFC featherweight title in stunning fashion, beating his Brazilian opponent after just 13 seconds with a spectacular one-punch knock-out.
Jose Aldo didn’t talk much in the build-up to the fight. Rather he stared like that nutter in the pub who threatens your existence for glancing at his girlfriend on your way to the bar. Their encounter last weekend is expected to breach the million mark in pay-per-view sales around the globe. Those are Floyd Mayweather Jnr numbers and are making the elite UFC grapplers very rich men.
McGregor told his parents he would be a millionaire by 25 when he quit his job as a plumber to train full time in mixed martial arts. It took him slightly longer, but the 27-year-old is there now. His love of a confrontation sought an outlet first in boxing at the Crumlin ABC in Dublin. Though a determined, gritty southpaw McGregor did not stand out as a junior and when the family moved out to the suburb of Lucan, the proximity of a MMA club proved irresistible.
In the UFC firmament McGregor has found a niche for his primal aggression and love of a show. The confrontation with Aldo was the classic between elder statesman and irreverent youth, and neither element cared much for the other.
McGregor is the archetypal frontiersman, in his example breaking new ground as the first from the British Isles, and Ireland in particular, to establish a substantial UFC presence. His Irishness is central to the project, believing himself the product of an ancient warrior code, a latter day Cuchulainn. He talks of legacy, of laying a trail for those who follow, of being talked about for years to come.
“We are a fighting nation,” he says. “So to be first on this stage, and leading the way? I have no doubt the next generation will come on and continue my legacy. I am happy to play a great part in history. But long after I am done, my story will be told.”
Deification of the self can be a dangerous game in this business since it encourages the idea of invincibility and diminishes the talent of others. The legend he seeked to become stood before him, unblemished in the Octagon for a decade, not that McGregor recognised him.
“Respect for me is earned through battle. If he [Aldo] shows up and shows heart, he'll earn my respect,” he said before the brief fight.
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