Conor McGregor will face the biggest fight of his life on March 5 against powerful lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos.
Joe Rogan called the Brazilian the most dominant champion the division has ever seen – and that’s big talk when you consider the previous incumbents were Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn.
But the Irishman is utterly steadfast in his belief he will finish the 155lb champ in under one minute when the two clash at UFC 196.
So far the McGregor juggernaut has crushed anything in its path in the UFC. It remains to be seen whether The Notorious truly is unstoppable – but he has come good on every prediction in his relentless march through the UFC ranks, culminating in the brutal 13-second KO of featherweight king Jose Aldo. So why start doubting him now?
Respected MMA analyst Robin Black believes it’s McGregor’s bulletproof mindset that’s behind his irresistible rise to the highest echelons of the sport.
“The thing that the guy has is that insane growth mindset, Black said in a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. “To him, anything is possible.
“If you win the 155lb belt, okay you go fight Robbie (Lawler). Oh okay, if you won that, who are you going to fight? (Luke) Rockhold? And then Jon Jones?
“There are limits, you know what I mean. There are f**king limits. But he actually believes there are none, and that belief means that he is better at everything than he was yesterday.
“There has to be a point. But that belief that there is no point, that belief that there is no limit whatsoever is extremely powerful when it’s put together with a drive of a work ethic – an insane work ethic. That is a powerful thing.”
McGregor famously said that ‘talent doesn’t exist and we’re all equal human beings’ a mantra which, backed by real hard work and dedication to improving as a fighter, has seen him achieve so much so soon.
Black, who currently works alongside Straight Blast Gym’s sports psychologist David Mullins, continued: “He is his own mental coach – he is on his own journey. Not that he doesn’t want information from David, but he wants it from 50 sources.
“He’s consuming philosophy and ideas on how to improve, ideas of what it is to be your authentic self, peak performance – all that kind of stuff. Constantly consuming it.”
This supreme confidence, focus and mental fortitude has already got him to the cusp if greatness in the UFC. If he can overcome RDA in a few weeks time it will elevate to a level we’ve never seen any fighter reach in the organisation.
And then who knows what? Suddenly the rumours of a shot at Robbie Lawler’s welterweight title at UFC 200 don’t look so far fetched after all.
