The death of 'The Notorious': How Conor McGregor completed a mid-career persona change
- Conor McGregor fights for the first time in 12 months on Saturday against Dustin Poirier at UFC 257.
- The 32-year-old Irishman heads into the weekend with a very different public persona than he had in his 20s.
- The fighter has killed off the 'Notorious' part of his name, and is a 2.0 version of himself.
- He remains a threat in the UFC, but approaches the game with new-found maturity.
FIGHT ISLAND - Conor McGregor shadow-boxed beside a DJ booth as sweaty revelers gyrated inside a nightclub in Las Vegas.
Party-goers had their camera-phones held head-high, focusing the lens on the fighter commanding center stage.
McGregor had just annihilated Donald Cerrone in 40 seconds in the main event of the UFC 246 show at the nearby T-Mobile Arena in January 2020 - his first victory since 2016.
The post-fight promo he cut in the middle of the Octagon was almost as long as the fight itself. He called his UFC rivals "fools," and told 20,000 fans in the venue that he was going to celebrate in Sin City.
Within an hour he had changed clothes, addressed the press, and was living his best life - die-hard fans cheered every left hook he playfully threw in his jet black, three-piece suit at the club.
He signed autographs on people's shoes and posed for photographs knowing jubilant fans would look back at them when they got home as they were witnessing the first win of the McGregor Mk.2 era.
He then disappeared to the VIP section so he could get loose on the dance floor, throw an arm around members of his fight team, and sink into a sofa with a lit cigar clenched between his teeth.
Sweet, sweet victory - a taste McGregor savored many times after wins like his immortal 13-second knockout over Jose Aldo, an all-time rivalry with Nate Diaz, and an MMA masterpiece against Eddie Alvarez which made him a two-weight champion.
Life would have been great had it not been for the fact that those happy vibes masked a slew of bad news and allegations that refused to go away.
Just days before his smash-and-grab win over Cerrone, McGregor was quizzed by reporters about sexual assault allegations made against him. At the time many people in the crowd booed the reporter asking the question.
"Guys, I have done nothing wrong," McGregor said at the press conference, which Insider attended.
McGregor has consistently denied any allegations of sexual assault made against him.
One year on McGregor fights again
Fast forward 12 months and McGregor competes for the first time since beating Cerrone but, once again, finds himself in the middle of a fight week dealing with a similar story.
The New York Times this week published further details of a 2018 sexual assault allegation against McGregor in Ireland.
The woman who accused McGregor of assault has filed a personal injury lawsuit against the athlete at the Irish High Court. She is suing him for between $1.79 million and $2.13 million, the Times reports, citing the suit.
Irish authorities previously decided not to bring criminal charges against McGregor following an investigation.
Karen J. Kessler, a spokeswoman for McGregor, said in a statement cited by the Irish Independent:
"After an exhaustive investigation conducted by the Gardaí which, in addition to interviews of the plaintiff, included interviewing numerous sources, obtaining witnesses' statements, examining closed circuit footage and the cooperation of Conor McGregor, these allegations were categorically rejected.
"The plaintiff knows the facts contradict the assertions in this lawsuit. Mr. McGregor will dispute any claims and is confident that justice will prevail."
Insider has contacted McGregor's representatives for comment about the allegations in the New York Times story, but is yet to receive a response.
After the allegations were published, a reporter asked McGregor about the Times' story at a press conference Insider attended Thursday.
Like last year before the Cerrone fight, the reporter was booed before he finished the question.
"It is old news," McGregor said. "It was investigated thoroughly over the course of two long years and I was cleared of any wrongdoing."
The death of 'The Notorious'
For much of his career, McGregor has been known as "The Notorious" - reflecting his fierce aggression in the Octagon and his bombastic persona out of it.
If you throw a bottle at Nate Diaz, a chair at Eddie Alvarez, and claim you could whoop Jesus Christ's ass if you wanted to, well … you're likely notorious.
There's a line most people agree not to cross, but "The Notorious" would sprint past it with a mischievous smile on his face.
He'd look back, throw politically incorrect and sometimes downright offensive insults from a distance, and laugh maniacally into the moonlight.
McGregor once called a German opponent a Nazi, said he'd "invade [Aldo's] favela on horseback and kill anyone who was not fit to work," and denied he's racist by saying he's half-black from the belly button down.
"Here's a little present for my beautiful black female fans," McGregor said while thrusting his groin into the air just days after telling Floyd Mayweather to: "Dance for me, boy."
He'd do and say things like that, then get on the mic and say he wanted to "take this chance to apologize… to absolutely nobody.
"The double champ does what the f--- he wants."
That was then. This is now, and everything's different.
McGregor's behavior has changed, and while there's no definitive reason why, there are a number of possible explanations:
- He was forced to tap out in a comprehensive beating by Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018, an event which may well have humbled him.
- He was deserted by many mainstream Irish sports fans following a pattern of out-of-sport violence in 2018 and 2019.
- He may have had to rethink his trash talking of opponents after sexual assault allegations, which he denies. Opponents can easily bring up the allegations if McGregor tries to talk smack. Nurmagomedov, for instance, called him a "rapist."
- He has simply matured since becoming a father of two kids.
Nowhere is McGregor's change in attitude more apparent than the respective promotions for his welterweight match against Cerrone in 2020, and his lightweight return Saturday at the newly-built Etihad Arena on Fight Island against Dustin Poirier.
While the McGregor of old would have needed no second invitation to insult them, belittle them, and maybe flip them off, McGregor 2.0 speaks positively about his opponents. Admires them, even.
For instance, McGregor on Thursday called Poirier a "hell of a competitor" - something
As Chuck Mindenhall observed in The Athletic just before the Cerrone fight: "He wasn't there to take over this time; he was there to take part."
And just like Floyd Mayweather evolved from Pretty Boy to Money, McGregor, too, has evolved into something else.
He remains a hulking specimen at 155-pounds, capable of bloodying an opponent with shoulder strikes before flattening them with a head kick.
That said, he needs to retire the "Notorious" nickname, because notorious is not what Conor McGregor is any more.
McGregor rehabilitated his image during the pandemic
A Dublin medical center was overwhelmed by patients suffering from the coronavirus in March 2020.
Running low on personal protective equipment (PPE) for its staff, and unable to afford the bulk costs of replacement gowns as it struggled with financial constraints, doctors were wondering how they'd cope as the crisis worsened.
Few would expect McGregor to provide salvation. But the fighter, spurred by a long-standing appreciation of first responders, hand-delivered boxes of PPE - part of a $1 million pledge he made at the start of the pandemic.
"It was like Christmas," Dr. Nina Byrnes, the founder of Dublin's Generation Health Medical Clinics, told The Tonight Show. "I would have had no gowns … if not for the charity."
Moving images of doctors in hazmat suits and patients dying in hallways because of overcrowded hospitals had stirred panic as COVID-19 rampaged through the world early in the year.
As Donald Trump downplayed the virus to American citizens, and the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson bragged about shaking infected people's hands, McGregor became a voice of reason in his homeland.
In a statesmanlike address he implored Ireland's government to do more to restrict the spread of the coronavirus by grounding flights, closing non-essential business, and enforcing a stringent lockdown.
"I know a good, tough fight when I see one, and we have one on our hands now," he said. "Let's go, Ireland … God bless us all."
UFC came back after a COVID hiatus, but McGregor stayed away
The UFC President Dana White left an ESPN MMA reporter baffled when he announced he was in talks to lease an island so he could host international events as he sought to bring MMA back in the coronavirus era.
Rumors ran wild that the island would feature palm trees, tiki torches, and an open-air beachside Octagon with White perched on a golden throne.
The concept of Fight Island rapidly became a star in its own right, akin to a fighter with a household name.
Perhaps struck by a fear of missing out, McGregor sent White messages. "What date could I fight on Fight Island, and will there be fans?" one text sent in May said, according to the UFC boss.
Fight dates passed him by, though. Proposed contests against the fading veteran Diego Sanchez and the past-prime Anderson Silva never materialized. And so he retired, fed up.
"The game does not excite me," he said, citing boredom and tiredness. "I'm just over it."
The retirement, though, did not stick.
McGregor attempted in September to organize a charity MMA sparring match involving Dustin Poirier, to take place in Dublin before Christmas, just weeks after he was arrested in Corsica, France, on suspicion of indecent exposure.
The Irishman attracted all kinds of headlines in 2020
In mid-September, McGregor took his young family to Corsica for a vacation onboard their $4 million yacht, ahead of a 180-kilometer charity voyage that would be attended by luminaries like Princess Charlene of Monaco.
On Friday, September 13, McGregor was photographed on the Calvi marina wearing McGregor Fast-branded clothes, a baseball cap, and with his hands on his hips.
He wasn't stopping for lunch or to go shopping though.
He was stood there because police were raiding his yacht, responding to a summons over allegations of attempted "sexual assault and sexual exhibition," according to a Sky report at the time.
He was arrested and spent two days in police custody before being released that Saturday.
At the time, a representative said McGregor "vigorously denies any accusations of misconduct," according to TMZ Sports.
McGregor seemed to have had a quiet 2020, but still attracted all kinds of headlines after his shellacking of Cerrone considering his philanthropy at the start of the pandemic, short-lived retirement, and yet another allegation of sexual assault.
McGregor 2.0 fights again, but is yet to attract a new nickname
This weekend, McGregor returns to do what he does best - cracking skulls for a living.
McGregor fought only once in 2020 but that was enough to secure himself the best-selling pay-per-view in his sport that year, with more than 1.3 million sales according to MMA Fighting.
Regardless of any dwindling interest among mainstream Irish sports fans, it is clear he remains a worldwide star.
Every McGregor fight is a spectacle. He is still an elite level combatant, and remains capable of embarking on a post-championship run that may well match what he has already accomplished in the UFC.
Speaking to Insider in 2019, McGregor's long-time MMA coach John Kavanagh called his star fighter a "savant" who he always learns from whenever they have training sessions together.
The next time we saw him compete, he landed face-opening shoulder strikers with such aplomb that it was clear they were weapons that had been refined in camp.
It would be no surprise to see McGregor defeat Poirier on Saturday on Fight Island with new skills.
In doing so, he'd open up pathways to more must-see MMA matches. Perhaps against the winner of Michael Chandler and Dan Hooker - Saturday's co-main event - or Charles Oliveira, or even Khabib Nurmagomedov if the Russian really can be lured out of his own retirement.
Out-pointing Poirier, the No.2-ranked UFC lightweight, would be a remarkable achievement in its own right.
But McGregor, 32, is promising a 60-second finish.
"The Notorious" may be gone, but if that were to materialize, "Mystic Mac" - the nickname McGregor earned for successfully predicting when and how he would beat opponents - would be back.
Read more:
From Irish pride to Jekyll and Hyde: Why Dublin turned its back on Conor McGregor
How an association with Conor McGregor helped an ailing barber turn his Crumlin shop around
Conor McGregor showed he's the UFC's version of Tiger Woods by chartering a yacht to Fight Island