Conor McGregor STUNS UFC Fans – MMA Breaking News
By Barnaby Kellaway
Dublin being the last leg of the UFC 189 World Tour, the stage was set for insanity to ensue, and it did.
The Irish crowd were even more raucous than the Brazilians at the first stop. Conor McGregor was loving it. He and Jose Aldo were true to the form of the last ten days, sniping and snarling at each other from across the panel. But then McGregor, reacting to Aldo’s claims of being ‘the king of Dublin’, made his most outrageous move to date. In an opportune moment he lunged across the panel and swiped Aldo’s championship belt, held it up to the frenzied crowd and shouted: ‘I am the King, I am the King!’
The reaction of the champ did nothing to restrain McGregor, who was screaming and laughing in his face. In this situation Aldo had two viable options. He could take the high road and ignore him. In doing so making himself seem impervious to the taunts and also making McGregor look like a bit of a lunatic. Conversely, he could react physically by pushing aside Dana White who was separating the two and forcibly retrieving his belt. He did neither. Instead, like a toddler trying to get sweets from his mother, he got up and tried, unsuccessfully, to take it back whilst hurling insults.
This was a topic of conversation between fighters Kenny Florian and Daniel Cormier on UFC Tonight. When asked what he would do if McGregor stole his belt, DC said, ‘I would have punched him directly in his face and said get your little grubby hands off my title’. The light heavyweight was reminding us of his penchant for a press conference brawl.
Throughout the tour McGregor has been relentlessly antagonistic in trying to force a reaction. In Dublin, in front of the crazed home support, he got what he was looking for. Before this moment Aldo’s tactic to combat the Irishman’s shenanigans was to stay calm, ignore and laugh at him. But here he was pushed over the edge and he got mad.
This particular show of disrespect to the champion has prompted many fans to say the Irishman has finally gone too far. But really this is just something we have never seen before. Without a doubt he is pushing the boundaries to the limit and getting very close to going ‘too far’. But he’s still, just about, within the boundaries.
Ultimately this is McGregor doing what McGregor does better than anyone in the sport: grabbing headlines and boosting the numbers.
