It wasn’t until the early hours of Sunday morning, on the occassion of the first UFC event in the city of New York, at the climax of MMA’s grand entrance to the mecca that is Madison Square Garden, that Conor McGregor scored his own piece of history, becoming the only dual-weight title holder at the top level of the sport.
Following his swift second round knockout of Eddie Alvarez, McGregor’s chief concern was the belated appearance of his newly won Lightweight Championship belt. He had teased a big post-fight announcement, but the news of his impending fatherhood did little to quell the cry of those who are already demanding to know ‘What next?’.
His waist, however mutable, according to some is not fit to hold two belts. Longtime UFC fans, disgruntled back in September with the decision to award him a shot at Alvarez, remain eager for him to defend the Featherweight Championship imminently, or else let it go to stop the perceived rot. McGregor stands accused of holding up the division, his knack for self-promotion affording him the sort of leeway other fighters can scarcely believe.
Yet by Monday morning, laying money matters and ownership concerns for one moment to one side, McGregor was ready to reveal something of his future inside the octagon. And while some suggested he would relinquish the Featherweight title, others mooted Nate Diaz for a third and decisive bout, and rumours even persisted that McGregor was ready to retire altogether, instead he stunned the world by summoning a pastoral scene from his Dublin roots.
McGregor explained that a few years ago, he was on Howth Head for an afternoon stroll. This was before his UFC debut, and short of money, having heard some bad news by way of a friend, he was agonising over whether to continue in the fight game or give it all up and pursue something else.
Walking over some craggy cliffs, with Baily Lighthouse off someplace in the distance, suddenly McGregor happened upon a four-leaf clover, the good luck symbol oft confused for the shamrock. McGregor took the clover home, and pressed it carefully into his collecting book. He thought long on the clover, considering how it had managed to grow amid such rocky terrain, and eventually concluded that it was a sign, and that he should go on fighting.
A handful of years later, and just look where McGregor is at today. A millionaire many times over, the biggest star in all of combat sports, proudly hoisting two titles – and yet still it is not enough. For McGregor declared on Monday, in his own inimitable way, that far from relinquishing a title, he refuses to settle until he has four hanging from his frame – just like the four leaves of the clover hung on their stalk so brittle, proudly defying all the odds.
McGregor wants to be a champion across four weight divisions, and it would take a foolish man whatever the nationality to bet against him. Conjuring a merry scene possibly not too far hence, McGregor sighed fondly and said ‘That’d be grand’, before adding that his competitors ‘Got nuttin”, as he recited the long list of his and the four-leaf clover’s shared attributes.
