LAS VEGAS – Muhammad Ali was not talking about Conor McGregor when one day he spoke of achieving what many thought impossible, but he could have been.
The legendary boxing champion's words from nearly a half-century ago ring hauntingly true regarding McGregor, the UFC's featherweight champion and a man, like Ali, who is constantly pushing the boundaries of what others think possible.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it," Ali said in the mid-1960s. "Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing."
And of course, McGregor would tell you that nothing is impossible.
His bout with Nate Diaz on Saturday in the main event of UFC 196 is already the third-largest gate in UFC history. It's at $7.4 million already, with tickets still to be sold in the upper reaches of the Grand Garden.
McGregor, of course, holds the second-largest gate, of $10 million, which he set when he knocked out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds at UFC 194 on Dec. 12.
He's a different animal, one who does things on his terms and on his time.
Speaking of time, it's the only thing this guy doesn't have a clue about. He's late for just about everything he does. If he sees you 90 minutes after the scheduled time, you must be in the inner circle.
He'll make a salesman wait, and then drop mega-money and make those two hours seem like two seconds.
He'll make a television host wait, and then put on a classic segment.
MMA reporters know there's Eastern Time, Central Time, Pacific Time and Conor Time.
But there aren't many complaints because he's gold when he shows.
The UFC is alternately confounded by him and completely taken with him. His tardiness creates all sorts of crises for its marketing and P.R. teams, but he's literally one of the greatest promoters who ever lived.
He's the biggest star in his sport, and yet he'll treat an individual fan who works a blue-collar job as if he were a billionaire CEO -- it’s hard to imagine any athlete other than perhaps Ali doing something like McGregor did just days before his bout with Diaz.
There's nobody like him, and that applies to his fighting, too.
McGregor is fighting Diaz in a welterweight fight, which could be the forerunner to him challenging welterweight champion Robbie Lawler in the main event of UFC 200 in July.
He was supposed to face Rafael dos Anjos for the lightweight title on Saturday, but with less than two weeks to go, dos Anjos pulled out of the bout with a broken foot.
That deprived McGregor of his shot at history, of becoming the first UFC fighter to ever hold two weight-division belts simultaneously, but he's made a career out of turning rocks into gold nuggets.
He angrily agreed to fight Diaz at welterweight, instead of at lightweight as UFC president Dana White said would be the case after dos Anjos withdrew.
That led to all sorts of questions about McGregor's future. Barring an extraordinarily unexpected turn of events, he's going to headline UFC 200 in July.
Assuming he defeats Diaz, the most logical options would seem to be either defending his featherweight belt against Frankie Edgar or once again challenging dos Anjos to bid for the lightweight belt.
But McGregor's coach, John Kavanagh, has suggested that McGregor would consider fighting Lawler, as big, and rough, and tough of a welterweight as the UFC has ever had.
McGregor is a massive featherweight, but he's a pipsqueak when it comes to welterweights. He said Wednesday he's awakening at 168 or 169 pounds, and eats multiple breakfasts.
Lawler is at least 20 or 25 pounds bigger before his weight cut. But McGregor didn't dismiss a challenge for Lawler's belt out of hands. He didn't dismiss a challenge for the middleweight title.
But his track record proves he knows much more about what he's capable of than the thousands of keyboard warriors who will trash him if he were to lose in one of those bids.
He was blistering a slew of his potential opponents for what he called crying. He said he can still make 145 pounds, but can't understand why there is no opponent who is making him stand up and take notice.
"Making that cut to 145, people only see the build-up to the fight," he said. "People don't see after the fight. It's a process to get your body back right after a strenuous cut like that. This time, I'm waking up 168. I'm waking up under weight. After the fight, I won't have that process to get myself back right again. I'll just be me, normally, so I can go back to 145 no problem.
"Let me see some of these damn bums get up and fight and make some noise! I just hear them crying, complaining, begging and all this [expletive]. I don't see nothing appealing. We need someone who can build themselves up right now. I'm sitting pretty here. They need to fight and make some noise, make me say, 'OK, I'll take him.' Right now, I see nothing. I see a bunch of complainers and whiners waiting. … I've never waited once."
He'll be a decided underdog if he does get a shot at Lawler.
It may be unlikely, and at some point, he'll probably need someone to save himself from his own bravery.
He wants to sell big numbers and earn the big checks that come with those. To do that, he knows he needs to do extraordinary things. And winning the welterweight belt two fights after claiming the featherweight title might be the most extraordinary accomplishment in the sport's modern history.
Asked about a Lawler match at UFC 200, he said, "Why not?" He understands the significance of what that would mean to the larger picture in a way that too many others do not.
"That's there," he said of a potential welterweight title fight. "Why not? It's probably the leading option. Dos Anjos is an absolute bum, I swear, and he's still complaining. How do you pull out of a fight with a bruised foot and still be talking all this [expletive]?"
Someone asked him if he's disappointed he's not getting a chance to make history on Saturday. He sneered.
"Look at this," he said of the large media crowd that engulfed him. "It's always history, every damn time. The gates keep rising. The pay-per-views keep rising. Everything just keeps rising. It's always history."
He may not always win, but he's never seen a task he's felt was too much to conquer.
He makes you care. One Irish fan wrote his name in for president, though others care because they despise him.
Either way, he commands attention, and after getting it, he almost always does what he says he's going to do.
The joy ride will come to an end one day. Someone is going to be too big or too strong or too something, and will defeat him.
And he'll be ripped and pilloried for it.
But as Ali said, impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.
To McGregor, all things are possible. We're just along for the ride.
