All over the place from start to finish
It’s very, very often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
But the UFC know that Conor McGregor is an outlier in this. He’s bigger than the company and when he consistently shows up late to UFC events, he can do so with little fear of facing sanction.
McGregor has previously been late to press conferences with Nate Diaz and with Eddie Alvarez, so it was too much to hope for on Thursday night that it would start to time.
As it was, he rocked in at 11.25pm for a conference supposed to start on the hour, and his opponent Khabib Nurmagomedov had already said his piece, picked up his belt and exited stage left.
While Nurmagomedov indicated that he found McGregor’s punctuality to be disrespectful, it’s clear for all to see that the fighter from Dagestan is cut from a different cloth than Diaz or Alvarez.
Whereas the occasion clearly got to Alvarez in a similar instance in 2016, where he left the stage only to return later with emotion etched in every line of his face when McGregor made his entrance, or Diaz, who stormed out in a whirlwind of insults and flying bottles (from McGregor).
Nurmagomedov, to his credit, calmly answered questions for the guts of 15 minutes before a dignified walk from the stage.
Alvarez had already lost by then. Diaz simply didn’t care and his exit was a middle finger to McGregor, his crew and to the UFC itself. Nurmagomedov cared, but he didn’t let himself get caught up in the circus. He didn’t return and concede ground in the psychological battle.
Perhaps The Notorious thought he would wait. He’d win the mind games on arrival, claim Nurmagomedov was a “little bitch” for sitting around waiting and call him a good little boy for waiting, or more likely, “a backwards little c**t”.
When he looks back on this, we imagine McGregor, who directed chants knocking rival whiskey companies and got narky at reporters who questioned the quality of his new product, will see this as a missed opportunity to try and drive home a final wedge of doubt into the psyche of the current UFC lightweight champion.
He misjudged Khabib’s character on Thursday night. His fans will be hoping he doesn’t do the same in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
