Conor McGregor backs up brash talk, continues ascent to UFC stardom
LAS VEGAS – Donald Cerrone is rarely at a loss for words, but as Conor McGregor held court at the post-fight news conference for UFC 178 Saturday, Cerrone had difficulty expressing himself.
Not long after McGregor knocked out Dustin Poirier in the first round of their featherweight bout before 10,544 at the MGM Grand Garden, he was more entertaining with a microphone in his hands than half of the stand-up comics playing on the Strip.
Cerrone mostly listened with a sly grin on his face until McGregor said he'd beat both featherweight champion Jose Aldo and No. 1 challenger Chad Mendes easily and that he didn't think much of the remainder of the rest of the 145-pounders.
"The division is filled with rookies and has-beens," McGregor said.
Cerrone's eyes nearly bulged out of his head. Even for one of the UFC's best talkers, that was more than he'd expected.
"Oh [expletive]," Cerrone said, grinning broadly while shaking his head in amazement at McGregor's gall.
But McGregor did what he said he would do and he did it with swagger and style. There was a bit of controversy on the knockout as it looked as if what was the knockout punch landed in an illegal spot, but McGregor insisted it was clean.
So, too, did referee Herb Dean and Bob Bennett, the executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission.
The punch happened directly in front of UFC president Dana White, who concurred with Dean.
Whether the stoppage, which came at 1:46 of the first round, was enough to convince McGregor's skeptics remains to be seen. But it was clearly a star-making performance given the way he handled himself before and after the fight.
He made people talk about him and want to see him fight, and that, after all, is the reason why the fighters even bother to speak to the media.
McGregor is bold, brash and humorous, and he knows how to attract attention. In the fight game, where fighters make more by selling tickets and pay-per-view, it's the way to a bigger paycheck.
And it doesn't hurt to kiss up to the bosses. McGregor made certain not only to give White a shout out, but UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta and his rarely heard-from brother, Frank.
"He's a humble guy and he came to fight," McGregor said of Poirier. "Make no mistake, though: I'm cocky in prediction. I'm confident in preparation, but I am always humble, in victory or defeat. I'm grateful for the opportunity that Dana, Lorenzo and Uncle Frank the fourth have given me."
There were many highlights and momentous moments on the card. Dominick Cruz returned after being off for three years and absolutely obliterated No. 5-ranked bantamweight Takeya Mizugaki.
Cruz quickly took Mizugaki down and finished him with a serious case of ground-and-pound at just 1:01 of the first. Cruz had two knee surgeries and sat out after tearing a groin since his last appearance in the cage, when he successfully defended the UFC bantamweight title against Demetrious Johnson on Oct. 1, 2011.
"I haven't been sitting around eating, getting fat, doing nothing," said Cruz, who did yeoman's work as an MMA analyst on Fox Sports during his break. "I've been working. I've been analyzing fights, breaking them down, evaluating everybody in the division, everybody's style. ... I saw the sport evolve."
He clearly evolved, proving he wasn't sitting around idly. Nor was Cat Zingano, who earned a Jan. 3 shot at the UFC women's bantamweight title against Ronda Rousey by stopping Amanda Nunes in the third round.
Zingano, who was fighting for the first time after suffering a serious knee injury and the suicide of her husband, started out slowly and was in jeopardy in the first round.
But after pulling off a suplex late in the first round, Zingano took over. After the fight, she raced over to White shouting, "Do you see me? Do you see me?"
White beamed and said, "Yes, Cat, I see you." He was impressed enough to give her a title shot.
Then there was Alvarez, the former Bellator champion making his UFC debut, rocking Cerrone in the middle of the first round.
"What'd he hit me, 15, 16 times in a row there?" Cerrone asked.
But whatever it was, Cerrone survived, using vicious kicks to finally take out Alvarez's legs. He won a unanimous decision.
There was more – Controversy erupted after the Yoel Romero stoppage of Tim Kennedy, because Romero got 28 additional seconds to remove Vaseline from his forehead due to a corner mix-up – but nothing could take the shine from McGregor.
He only has four UFC fights under his belt, but he's already planning his exit from the sport.
"Get in, get rich and get out," he said of his approach.
He'll get rich if he keeps knocking guys out. He did it Saturday with torn ligaments in his right thumb, which he said was massively swollen at one point.
He said he never considered asking for the fight to be postponed.
"I just improvised and adapted," McGregor said.
It's what veterans do. They find a way, and McGregor found a way. He also left a smile on White's face when he told the company president about the thumb injury.
White chuckled about McGregor's Irish brogue as he described the thumb injury.
"He told me, 'You don't need a thumb to fight,' " White said, beaming.
There were a lot of smiles, particularly since McGregor held the microphone for the majority of the post-fight news conference. McGregor had a lot of quips, but he also made a lot of sense.
He might – might – get a title shot next, though White wouldn't commit to it. If he does face the Aldo-Mendes winner, he has no doubt his hand will be raised.
"I believe I'd dismantle them both," he said. "Chad is an overblown 125 [pounder]. He just looks like a small bodybuilder. ... I'd tower over him. I'd maul Chad. Jose, again, I feel he's in that pattern of deterioration. It would be another easy win."
Perhaps they might be easy wins. And perhaps either Aldo or Mendes will shut his mouth once and for all.
But there is no doubt that as long as McGregor is around, things will be entertaining, inside and outside the cage.
