Conor McGregor is not the only one who can play mind games.
It may feel like The Notorious has the support of every man, woman and child on the island of Ireland during his fights, but his next opponent says this is not the case.
Rafael dos Anjos has claimed that Irish people regularly approach him and ask him to take McGregor down a peg at UFC 196, as he is “embarrassing” his fellow countrymen.
https://twitter.com/dangerblastfury/status/687092395347996672
Speaking to the MMA Hour, Dos Anjos said: “Even Irish fans, they come to me, they say ‘Please, shut that guy’s mouth. This guy has been talking so much.’ Maybe 90% of the fans that I meet say the same thing.
“The Irish say that this guy, he is embarrassing his own people. He is making everybody ashamed of him. The guy who lives next door to me is Irish. His wife is Irish too.
“They have two kids, they live next door to me. Everytime, we’re friends, he says ‘Please beat this guy. He’s embarrassing us. He’s embarrassing the Irish people.”
While McGregor certainly has a massive following both in Ireland and abroad, there’s no doubting that he’s a divisive character. Either way, we’ll have to wait until March 5 to see if RDA can silence The Notorious.
