This defeat reminded me of Prince Naseem’s demise. If the Irishman is to return to his best, he has his work cut out
The second-round technical knockout of Conor McGregor by Dustin Poirier can be analysed in many different ways.
For me, Naseem Hamed sprang to mind watching events unfold in the early hours of this Sunday morning. A precendent for how age, arrogance, fame and forces from the outside affect a modern professional fighter.
I covered Prince Naseem’s era. I’ve covered McGregor’s rise and rise in detail and there are similarities. Characters like this are engaging and fascinating. They climb so high, have huge gifts and genius, but eventually they must fall, either through themselves, or the rise of others.
How much time did McGregor let slip by, physically, athletically, with just six fights in five years? He gained huge wealth, notably against Floyd Mayweather (an estimated $120 million) but it may have cost him in the cage. Time waits for no man, and never a fighter. And even if McGregor turned up a little more humble than usual, he still arrived with the accoutrement of a billionaire’s yacht.
“Inactivity,” was the salient word from ‘Mystic Mac’ in his post-fight interview with Jon Anik. That inactivity is his own problem. It would be no surprise if the huge riches McGregor has amassed have blunted the hunger he had when he was a young warrior, an out-of-work apprentic plumber, taking the sport by storm.
“The Notorious One” had not fought since his 40-second demolition of Donald Cerrone last January, hailed as a performance fit for a returning king, but he couldn’t blast through Poirier with his famed left hand and kicks. He looked older, slower, one dimensional even, despite a positive first round.
McGregor himself was gracious in defeat and took nothing away from his opponent. He has always espoused martial artistry after fights. Here was his honesty. “You know, it is hard to overcome inactivity over long periods of time. That’s just it. The leg kicks were good, the calf kick was very good, the leg was dead and then I just wasn’t as comfortable as I needed to be.
“If you put in the time in here, you are going to get cosy in here and that’s it. I’ll have to dust it off and come back and that is what I will do.”
McGregor has come back from a similar humbling defeat to Nate Diaz, defeating him in the rematch and proving that he could adapt and adopt. That was four years ago. Now 32, and having suffered the first KO or TKO of his career, his comeback this time is tougher.
As Dana White, the UFC’s president pointed out in the post-fight trauma conference: “I think it’ll make him hungrier or he’s done.”
McGregor already ranks as one of the greatest fighters in MMA, no question. Legions of his loyal fans will point to a mistake in strategy in this fight, and they may be right. McGregor looked for a blinding finish from the off. Hamed was once the same, until he ran into Marco Antonio Barrera, who dethroned him in Las Vegas 20 years ago.
The UFC, meanwhile, will look at its income and probably calculate that he remains a huge financial draw, for at least a fight or two more. On eyes and pay-per-views alone, the Irishman is the biggest star ever to fight in the UFC. He made the sport mainstream, tore through opponents verbally and mentally, like Muhammad Ali once did in boxing, and was a pioneer in every sense of the word. But times change, eras change, and to many this looks like the end of an era.
From this chair, harsh or not, it looks like a mirror of Prince Naseem, who told me several years ago that there is only one modern fighter who reminds him of himself: McGregor.