The Notorious reckons it’s by no coincidence that his bold predictions almost always become a reality.
Diego Brandao and Dustin Poirier getting knocked out in the first round, Chad Mendes being put away inside two rounds and Jose Aldo pulling out with injury are all things Conor McGregor had foreseen happening before each respective fight.
The UFC interim featherweight champion explained to the Irish Examiner why his prophecies have a habit of coming true.
“I understand that if you see something and if you speak it aloud and say it with confidence and believe that it will come — or believe that it is already here — it will form itself into a reality.”
“And that is what has happened for me, many times over. Now I feel I’m an expert. I get better at it each time. I can almost pinpoint details of what will happen. If I say it, make no mistake, it will happen. I’m that damn good at it.”
It will come as no surprise that McGregor, a mental behemoth, believes his heightened ability to predict future events lies in psychology. He feels that a lot of people already know what lies ahead, but hold themselves back from proclaiming it due to fear.
“Damn right. If you see it here [points to his head] and then you speak it? … A lot of people see it but they don’t speak it. They are afraid to speak it. That alone is not going to allow it to manifest into a reality. You need to speak it. You need to be confident enough with it. And that’s what I do.”
McGregor’s rise to popularity can be attributed to his relentless trash-talk of his rivals in the UFC. He has this knack for honing in on perceived weaknesses of his opponents and spelling them out in plain English.
He revealed that this technique is used to sap the enemy’s confidence and cause them to doubt their own abilities.
“100%. When you speak with confidence and you tell a man the truth, it can send shivers through his whole body. I assess my opponents’ fighting ability. I let them know where their weaknesses are, I let them know where I’m going to attack, I let them know when I’m going to attack, and then I go out and do it.”
“So, when they read the truth and they realise, ‘Wow, I do react a certain way, I do counter the same way, I do take a shot bad,’ it plays with their head. But it’s just me speaking the truth.”
With all the smack talk he’s directed at Aldo, you better believe that’s playing in the Brazilian’s mind ahead of their grudge match at UFC 194.
