It’s virtually tough to do not forget that just some years in the past Conor McGregor was one of the standard and well-known athletes throughout the globe following a pair of fights in opposition to Nate Diaz, turning into the primary ever simultaneous two-division champion in UFC historical past and placing on a megafight with Floyd Mayweather.
These days appear lengthy gone now with McGregor inactive in his struggle profession since 2021 and many of the largest headlines connected to his title contain arrests, ugly accusations and even lawsuits. The newest incident is a jury in Eire discovering him accountable for sexual assault after a lawsuit was filed in opposition to McGregor following allegations courting again to 2018.
Whereas McGregor has maintained his innocence with plans to attraction the decision, he’s as soon as once more within the highlight for all of the mistaken causes with no telling if he’ll ever flip issues round.
“Conor’s going to be in a shitstorm right here,” UFC legend Matt Brown mentioned on the most recent episode of The Fighter vs. The Author. “Clearly he’s going to be fined financially, I don’t suppose he’s acquired any issues there. However I believe public smart, publicity smart, it’s going to harm him for positive. It ought to.
“Whether or not he was convicted criminally or not, which you mentioned we’re not going to get into, whether or not he really did it or not, he was discovered civilly liable and the very fact is he put himself in a state of affairs the place one thing like this might occur. Now, he’s acquired to pay the results for it. It needs to be publicly held accountable for it.”
It stays to be seen if McGregor’s attraction pays off or not however the court docket of public opinion has already largely dominated on him and his egregious habits outdoors the cage.
Whereas McGregor by no means precisely painted himself as an angel, sexual assault allegations are clearly fairly critical and people are the sorts of accusations that don’t simply magically go away.
“The general public opinion of him has modified,” Brown mentioned. “He by no means had that squeaky clear picture like Tiger Woods did. He wasn’t that squeaky clear. All of us knew he was form of a wild man. However that form of added to the attract. Like he’s a wild man, however he’s a good martial artist, he’s not going to do ‘that.’ Now he has crossed that line, not less than in line with a jury, he has crossed that line.
“There’s a gaggle of individuals which might be going to have a lack of respect for him and usually are not going to care as a lot about what he does or not need to be concerned with what he’s doing. It has long-reaching results.”
That mentioned, Brown is aware of redemption isn’t out of the query for McGregor as a result of there are examples of that taking place up to now with distinguished sports activities figures.
Maybe the title on the prime of that checklist is former boxing heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, who was really criminally convicted on rape expenses in 1992 earlier than serving three years in jail.
Following his launch, Tyson returned to boxing however controversy nonetheless adopted him whereas going through all kinds of points out and in of the ring, most notably when he bit off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear throughout a match in 1997 that earned him a disqualification loss and a ban from the ring.
Whereas he’s by no means fully escaped his previous, Tyson actually turned a beloved determine once more lately by interviews, internet hosting his personal podcast and even showing on TV and movies resembling his well-known cameo in The Hangover. Tyson’s continued reputation undoubtedly performed a giant half in his latest comeback struggle in opposition to Jake Paul leading to greater than 100 million folks tuning into watch the occasion on Netflix.
Brown can’t predict if McGregor might probably comply with an identical trajectory, however he is aware of it’s attainable.
“I don’t suppose that is unsalvageable, however he must be the one to salvage it,” Brown mentioned. “Nobody’s going to be the one to avoid wasting him on this state of affairs. The UFC can’t save him. He has to do the best issues. Get the f*ck out of the golf equipment. Put down the straws and get again within the gymnasium. Perhaps combating isn’t what he needs to do anymore so possibly that’s not the best path, however I believe it’s salvageable.
“If he comes out, and says ‘I discovered so much from this example and I’m not placing myself in a lot of these conditions anymore, I’m specializing in my household … all that form of stuff, says all the great issues — folks wish to see a redemption story. Individuals need folks to be good folks. We wish Conor to try this, however he must be the one to do it, although. It’s not going to occur by itself.”
Whereas Brown has constantly touted his perception that McGregor would by no means struggle once more — lengthy earlier than the latest court docket trial ended — he actually does hope the Irish celebrity could make amends and get his life again on monitor.
Perhaps that finally means a return to the UFC, or maybe McGregor simply realizes how far he’s fallen, and he by some means turns into decided to resurrect his public picture.
“I’m going to be cheering him on if he does that,” Brown mentioned. “He straightens out his life, and he turns into a greater particular person out of this complete situation. I’m saying this with little confidence that’s what’s going to occur. Perhaps in some unspecified time in the future in his life which may occur. Identical to Tyson, it took him a very long time. He was fairly outdated earlier than he lastly turned the nook. Conor is perhaps the identical man.”
Hearken to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Author each Tuesday with audio solely variations of the podcast obtainable on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio