When the information broke that Conor McGregor had withdrawn from his UFC 303 foremost occasion battle in opposition to Michael Chandler due to a damaged pinky toe, a few pictures flashed into my thoughts. The primary was the damaged foot Rafael dos Anjos suffered forward of his scheduled UFC 196 matchup in opposition to McGregor. The second was a quote attributed toMarvin Hagler, “It is powerful to get off the bed to do roadwork at 5 a.m. once you’re sleeping in silk pajamas.”
When Dos Anjos pulled out of UFC 196 due to a damaged foot, McGregor chastised the then-UFC light-weight champion, “Did you see it? It is a bruise,” McGregor mentioned in 2016. “Ice, ibuprofen. If I jumped underneath an x-ray, the physician would slap me and say what are you doing child? Get out of right here. Cease this! When you present up, you battle, you are in, congratulations. You probably did it.”
Dos Anjos additionally remembered McGregor’s remarks, and he addressed the previous two-division UFC champion on social media, evaluating the accidents that pressured them from their fights.
I understood why Dos Anjos withdrew from his battle in 2016, and I perceive why McGregor pulled out of UFC 303. Nonetheless, I am unable to assist however suppose the Conor McGregor of 2016, who had received the UFC featherweight title by knocking out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds in 2015, and earned a reported $500,000 for the win, would have fought with a damaged toe.
This brings us to Hagler’s remark and one thing that UFC CEO Dana White has mentioned many instances about McGregor: He doesn’t must battle.
“Conor would possibly by no means battle once more,” White mentioned in November 2017. “The man’s bought $100 (expletive) million. I’ve bought guys that made lower than that and have been legal professionals and went to highschool their complete life and stop working … attempt to stand up on daily basis and get punched within the face when you have got $100 million within the financial institution.”
McGregor’s wealth has elevated since White made that assertion within the aftermath of McGregor’s profitable boxing matchup in opposition to Floyd Mayweather. In 2021, McGregor was the highest-paid athlete on the planet, bringing in a reported $180 million.
White not too long ago reiterated his stance on the sum of money McGregor has gathered through the years, “It is unimaginable for that cash to not have an effect on you and alter you.”
White is appropriate. The cash has modified McGregor, however within the case of UFC 303 and his eradicating himself from the Chandler battle, that change may be for the higher. A youthful McGregor would have probably thrown warning to the wind and competed with an harm, which isn’t the wisest resolution.
McGregor addressed that reality when he spoke about pulling out of the battle.
“I am nonetheless right here rocking away,” McGregor mentioned on the latest Bellator occasion in Eire. “I had just a little lapse in focus so I needed to reschedule the belt, so I am just a little upset about that. Nevertheless it’s conserving me dialed in. It is conserving me centered…The job will not be completed. In order that’s not unhealthy for somebody like me. I am onwards in direction of the brand new date and take my classes discovered.
“It was a lapse in focus. If I used to be any considered one of these different little bums that may’t transfer, that haven’t any footwork, that do not depend on their abilities, then I might be OK. And I’ve completed it earlier than. I’ve made the stroll a mess of instances in these circumstances and given these bums a bonus over me that they do not even deserve. So now I am dialing it in, I’mgetting this coaching camp appropriate, I am strolling in there 100% Conor McGregor, harm free. Perfection is on the menu with me, and that is it.”
I perceive and help McGregor’s need to battle when he’s wholesome. A loss to Chandler would have put McGregor at 0-3 in his previous three UFC outings. He hasn’t received a battle since he defeated Donald Cerrone in 2020. A loss, even whereas compromised, wouldn’t have ended McGregor’s profession, however it wouldn’t have helped it. Nonetheless, I do know McGregor’s previous conduct and disparagement of Dos Anjos open him to criticism and condemnation. One thing he might or might not deserve, however it does really feel like a little bit of karma has come again to chew the brash and outspoken Irish fighter.
The brand new UFC 303 foremost occasion is a lightweight heavyweight title battle between present champion Alex Pereira and former champ Jiri Prochazka. UFC 303 takes place at T-Cellular Area in Las Vegas on Saturday, June 29. The principle card streams on ESPN+ pay-per-view following prelims on ESPN and early prelims on ESPN+.