It’s nearly troublesome to do not forget that only a few years in the past Conor McGregor was some of the widespread and well-known athletes throughout the globe following a pair of fights towards Nate Diaz, turning into the primary ever simultaneous two-division champion in UFC historical past and placing on a megafight with Floyd Mayweather.
These days appear lengthy gone now with McGregor inactive in his combat profession since 2021 and many of the largest headlines hooked up to his title contain arrests, ugly accusations and even lawsuits. The most recent incident is a jury in Eire discovering him answerable for sexual assault after a lawsuit was filed towards McGregor following allegations relationship again to 2018.
Whereas McGregor has maintained his innocence with plans to attraction the decision, he’s as soon as once more within the highlight for all of the improper causes with no telling if he’ll ever flip issues round.
“Conor’s going to be in a shitstorm right here,” UFC legend Matt Brown mentioned on the most recent episode of The Fighter vs. The Author. “Clearly he’s going to be fined financially, I don’t suppose he’s received any issues there. However I believe public sensible, publicity sensible, it’s going to harm him for certain. It ought to.
“Whether or not he was convicted criminally or not, which you mentioned we’re not going to get into, whether or not he really did it or not, he was discovered civilly liable and the actual fact is he put himself in a state of affairs the place one thing like this might occur. Now, he’s received to pay the implications for it. It ought to be publicly held accountable for it.”
It stays to be seen if McGregor’s attraction pays off or not however the court docket of public opinion has already largely dominated on him and his egregious conduct exterior the cage.
Whereas McGregor by no means precisely painted himself as an angel, sexual assault allegations are clearly fairly severe and people are the sorts of accusations that don’t simply magically go away.
“The general public opinion of him has modified,” Brown mentioned. “He by no means had that squeaky clear picture like Tiger Woods did. He wasn’t that squeaky clear. All of us knew he was form of a wild man. However that form of added to the attract. Like he’s a wild man, however he’s a good martial artist, he’s not going to do ‘that.’ Now he has crossed that line, no less than in line with a jury, he has crossed that line.
“There’s a gaggle of individuals which can be going to have a lack of respect for him and will not be going to care as a lot about what he does or not need to be concerned with what he’s doing. It has long-reaching results.”
That mentioned, Brown is aware of redemption isn’t out of the query for McGregor as a result of there are examples of that occuring up to now with outstanding sports activities figures.
Maybe the title on the prime of that checklist is former boxing heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, who was really criminally convicted on rape expenses in 1992 earlier than serving three years in jail.
Following his launch, Tyson returned to boxing however controversy nonetheless adopted him whereas dealing with all kinds of points out and in of the ring, most notably when he bit off a bit of Evander Holyfield’s ear throughout a match in 1997 that earned him a disqualification loss and a ban from the ring.
Whereas he’s by no means utterly escaped his previous, Tyson actually grew to become a beloved determine once more lately by means of interviews, internet hosting his personal podcast and even showing on TV and movies comparable to his well-known cameo in The Hangover. Tyson’s continued reputation undoubtedly performed an enormous half in his latest comeback combat towards Jake Paul leading to greater than 100 million individuals tuning into watch the occasion on Netflix.
Brown can’t predict if McGregor may probably observe the same trajectory, however he is aware of it’s attainable.
“I don’t suppose that is unsalvageable, however he must be the one to salvage it,” Brown mentioned. “Nobody’s going to be the one to save lots of him on this state of affairs. The UFC can’t save him. He has to do the suitable issues. Get the f*ck out of the golf equipment. Put down the straws and get again within the gymnasium. Possibly combating isn’t what he desires to do anymore so possibly that’s not the suitable path, however I believe it’s salvageable.
“If he comes out, and says ‘I discovered rather a lot from this example and I’m not placing myself in most of these conditions anymore, I’m specializing in my household … all that form of stuff, says all the nice issues — individuals prefer to see a redemption story. Individuals need individuals to be good individuals. We would like Conor to do this, however he must be the one to do it, although. It’s not going to occur by itself.”
Whereas Brown has persistently touted his perception that McGregor would by no means combat once more — lengthy earlier than the latest court docket trial ended — he actually does hope the Irish celebrity could make amends and get his life again on monitor.
Possibly that ultimately means a return to the UFC, or maybe McGregor simply realizes how far he’s fallen, and he by some means turns into decided to resurrect his public picture.
“I’m going to be cheering him on if he does that,” Brown mentioned. “He straightens out his life, and he turns into a greater individual out of this complete situation. I’m saying this with little confidence that’s what’s going to occur. Possibly in some unspecified time in the future in his life that may occur. Similar to Tyson, it took him a very long time. He was fairly previous earlier than he lastly turned the nook. Conor may be the identical man.”
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