LAS VEGAS – Conor McGregor is one of those rare fighters who wins his bouts long before the first bell rings.
And on Wednesday during an occasionally wild news conference at the MGM Grand to formally announce UFC 197 for March 5, McGregor won the first battle.
The UFC featherweight champion will challenge champion Rafael dos Anjos of Brazil for the lightweight title in the main event of that card, with Holly Holm defending her women’s bantamweight title against Miesha Tate.
McGregor was in rare form on Wednesday, which is saying something. He called into question dos Anjos’ patriotism, referred to the champion as “a bum version of [Jose] Aldo,” needled Donald Cerrone as a quitter, tweaked the UFC’s “poster department” and railed against boxer Floyd Mayweather’s comments on racism.
“He’s not saying I am that person, but it put me in that bracket, and I did not appreciate it,” McGregor said of a Mayweather interview in which Mayweather said the success of McGregor and Ronda Rousey was because they are white.
Seething, McGregor said “There are people buried in the desert for less than that.”
As McGregor hurled taunt after taunt dos Anjos’ way, the veins on dos Anjos’ neck appeared, and he didn’t swallow easily. He was extraordinarily angry, and did everything he could to maintain his cool.
It was obvious that McGregor had already gotten to him. Even when a reporter asked dos Anjos about his faith, McGregor didn’t back off.
“I’m just a single tool in Jesus’ hand,” dos Anjos said. “On March 5, he will see what a single tool in Jesus’ hand can do with him.”
For much of the news conference, McGregor spoke right over dos Anjos, but this time, he let the champion finish. But before the reporter could ask a follow-up question, McGregor jumped in and turned the conversation in his favor once again.
Turning toward dos Anjos, McGregor leaned into his microphone and said, “Me and Jesus are cool,” as the room erupted with laughter.
“I’m cool with all the gods,” he said. “Gods recognize gods.”
Dos Anjos has strong takedowns and essentially won the title from Anthony Pettis last March by taking him down repeatedly.
The obvious plan for dos Anjos would be to try to get McGregor off his feet. But if McGregor can goad him into a striking war and get him so angry that dos Anjos wants to destroy him instead of just trying to win the fight, that will make it a much simpler night for the Irishman.
Whenever a fighter attacks and lunges, he’s open for counters, and as McGregor displayed in his title fight against Aldo last month, he’s a master at creating openings and then exploiting them.
He tweaked dos Anjos for leaving Brazil to live in the U.S. When dos Anjos said he planned to send McGregor “back home, sad,” he left a gargantuan opening that McGregor couldn’t resist jumping through.
“I’ll send him back home to California, his home,” McGregor said. “I swear to God, UFC [194], I fought Jose Aldo. I KO’d the country of Brazil’s true champion. Seeing how he handles himself, how his team handles themselves, they never learned the language of the oppressor. He never came to America. He trusted in his people, unlike this guy standing across from me.
“That’s why the people of Brazil love Jose Aldo. That’s why when Jose Aldo steps off a plane, the country of Brazil greets him, regardless of result. We’re sending Rafael on a four-day media run throughout Brazil, and we’ve got to book him a hotel. I’ve got to book him a hotel in his own home country. That should tell you all you need to know.”
A Brazilian television reporter later asked both dos Anjos and McGregor for their predictions. Dos Anjos said he believed he could knock McGregor out in the first, but wanted to extend the fight for three or four rounds in order to punish him.
Earlier, McGregor had predicted he’d win within a minute, so he gave a more graphic answer.
“On March 5, I will behead Rafael dos Anjos,” McGregor said. “I will drag his head through the streets of Rio de Janeiro to a parade of people, I’d imagine. It will become a national holiday also, I would imagine.”
McGregor’s only misstep came when several times he invoked the name of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the brutal leader of the violent Sinaloa drug cartel.
Guzman is responsible for many murders and for ruining many lives by pumping enormous amounts of drugs onto the streets of the United States.
At one point, McGregor spoke Spanish when discussing Brazil, and dos Anjos chided him, noting that Brazilians speak Portuguese.
McGregor smiled and tried to joke, by bringing Guzman into it.
“I’m speaking Spanish, I’m dressed like ‘El Chapo’ in his prime, I’m running this company like half a wise guy and I’m up here verbally destroying this man,” McGregor said. “I am a multi-cultured individual. I really can do whatever I want.”
It’s crude and tasteless to even joke about such a vile criminal who has ruined so many lives, but beyond that, what McGregor said is true.
In the mixed martial arts space, he can do what he wants. On Wednesday, he wanted to get into dos Anjos’ head, and he did that.
And on March 5, the fruits of those efforts will be on display.
