As Conor McGregor strolled across the turf at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday after Arsenal’s win over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League and had a short horse around with Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka, a few thoughts emerged.
How was he allowed to walk onto the Premier League club’s pitch and why was he doing it?
Placed alongside the cascade of other McGregor gestures over the years, it was harmless, a demonstration maybe that his showman appeal, his celebrity and notoriety can open doors.
He casually walked past smiling, bemused ground staff parading his influence. Of course, the moment was captured and uploaded.
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Just days before that McGregor was keeping in character at Wembley Stadium, remonstrating with heavyweight champion Tyson Fury at Daniel Dubois’s successful IBF world championship fight with Anthony Joshua. Again uploaded.
McGregor, who has yet to secure an official Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) comeback date after withdrawing from his proposed return against Michael Chandler in July, has not fought since January 2021 when he broke his leg against Dustin Poirier in Las Vegas.
He keeps promising to return but may never. Still, he rarely stops writing himself into narratives.
There are athletes with similar wealth to that of McGregor but few with his global profile, who demand the public eye or crave so much to be a player. Perhaps his need to be permanently in the spotlight goes beyond slinging beverages.
In August McGregor, having backed Trump for the US presidency, threw a social media tantrum after Trump hailed Khabib Nurmagomedov as his favourite UFC fighter. Trump knows McGregor. President of UFC Dana White also supports Trump, who he calls a friend.
In February Elon Musk, a Trump supporter, posted on X “Conor is right” after McGregor urged those Irish voters among his 10.4 million followers to vote “no-no” in Ireland’s referendum on care and the definition of family.
McGregor also posted in November of last year on immigrants. “Ireland, we’re at war” and “Do not let any Irish property be took over unannounced. Evaporate said property. It’s a war.”
That appealed to certain people and confirmed an obnoxious side to McGregor that makes him distasteful, but also astute in tapping into a populist type of personality.
Part grifter, part culture warrior, part cruel jester, McGregor doesn’t always have to make sense. Inconsistency, his myriads of courts cases, or his vulgarity aren’t stumbling blocks. Some see his flouting the law as a badge of honour.
When he announced on X his anger over the cost of a Government bike shed and that he would run for President of Ireland next year, the mechanism that could prevent him from doing so – being nominated by 20 members of the Oireachtas or four local authorities – seemed irrelevant. The defiance of the message was the important piece.
“With me as president this type of carry on that we’ve seen countless times, some more serious than others, would be tore apart on the spot! A greedy and corrupted bunch of chancers is all! #IDHAVEALLYOURANSWERS.”
In another misinformed post he vowed: “As President I hold the power to summon the Dáil as well as dissolve it.
“So as I said before, I would have all the answers the people of Ireland seek from these thieves of the working man, these disrupters of the family unit, these destructors of small businesses, and on and on and on! These charlatans in their positions of power would be summoned to answer to the people of Ireland and I would have it done by day end ... I am the only logical choice. 2025 is upcoming.”
Cage fighter to demagogue politician, disadvantaged Crumlin kid to world champion and millionaire or social media megamouth, there are many examples of athletes who have jumped the fence from sport to politics.
Take Glen Rovers legend Jack Lynch, an All-Ireland medal winner and taoiseach, or former heavyweight champion of the world Vitali Klitschko who retired from boxing in 2013 and has been mayor of Kyiv since 2014.
Manny Pacquiao, who won world titles in eight weight divisions, served as a senator of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, and Olympic gold medal-winning track athlete and conservative Seb Coe is a former MP and a member of the House of Lords.
All have more decorum. However, the way McGregor expresses himself has become normalised and is less outrageous as political discourse continues to turn up the dial on vulgarity.
In August, Trump reposted a lewd social media remark below a picture of vice-president Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton that said: “Funny how blowjobs impacted both their careers differently...”
He has called Harris a “whack job”, “dumb as a rock”, “a bum”, asserted that she only recently “became a black person” and is mentally deficient. There apparently is no bottom.
The great unknown about McGregor is whether he is serious about what he says and posts. People are repulsed and drawn to him and forever curious as he breaks norms. His chaotic, disruptive, testosterone-scented personality brings division and offence but also energy.
Seen through the prism of living in Ireland, many but not all cast him as a clown and boorish misogynist. But unsettling as it may be, dismissing a character like McGregor may be as foolish as taking him too seriously.
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