Like most Irish fighters, Paul Hughes came up admiring Conor McGregor and the attention he brought to his home country after becoming arguably the biggest star in combat sports.
But lately McGregor has become far more synonymous with what he says during interviews, press conferences and over social media than his fights. His last appearance came all the way back in July 2021 when he suffered a gruesome broken leg in a bout against Dustin Poirier. More recently, McGregor went on a viral tirade on Twitter taking aim at Hughes after the PFL standout showed respect to opponent Usman Nurmagomedov and his coach Khabib Nurmagomedov following a five-round battle that could go down as one of the best fights of the year.
McGregor insulted Hughes for comments he made in the cage and then called in to question his Irish identity because the 27-year-old hails from Northern Ireland, which brings up a lot of history and violence for that part of the world.
“It was obviously a very extreme kind of viewpoint that he was taking,” Hughes told MMA Fighting about McGregor’s comments. “Obviously an unbelievably disrespectful one.
“It’s probably the most disrespectful thing you could say to a fellow Irishman is that he’s not Irish just because I come from the north of the country.”
Hughes represents Ireland as his home nation while carrying the country’s flag with him to the cage, which is exactly what McGregor targeted in now deleted comments on social media.
“Get that flag off you,” McGregor wrote. “You little know what you are c*nt from up there.”
As much as he despised what McGregor said, Hughes admits he really doesn’t take all that much offense considering the source.
“Look as I’ve talked about a couple of times now, I didn’t take it very personally,” Hughes explained. “Because unfortunately it’s not the Conor that we once knew. So people are saying, ‘Is it hard to hear that from someone you looked up to?’ I kind of take it with a pinch of salt for that reason. It is what it is. I wasn’t distraught about what he said, put it like that.
“Unfortunately it seems that way [he’s just not the same person anymore]. I certainly hope it doesn’t stay that way. I wish all the best.”
A huge part of McGregor’s anger seemingly stemmed from the respect Hughes showed the Nurmagomedov family in the cage. Hughes made sure to tell them he’s his own man and “not like this other guy” as an obvious reference to the former UFC champion.
McGregor rarely misses an opportunity to stoke the flames of his disdain towards group of fighters from Dagestan after he suffered a fourth-round submission loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 back in 2018. While Khabib moved on from that fight and eventually retired as UFC lightweight champion with a perfect 29-0 record, McGregor still trash talks him whenever the opportunity presents itself.
But Hughes doesn’t count McGregor as a teammate or close personal friend. He wasn’t connected to that rivalry. And he sees no reason to get dragged into it now.
“It doesn’t,” Hughes responded when asked if McGregor’s problems with the Nurmagomedov family suddenly became his problem. “You seen then after the fight the mutual respect that we had. Everybody kind of left going that was good. We had a five-rounder, we sold the place out, we fought really hard and we have mutual respect for each other after as martial arts should be.
“I understand things how the narrative was trying to be pushed and I understand that. I get it from a marketing perspective and at the end of the day, I was the one that first came up with Ireland vs. Dagestan 2. I created that narrative and it was good marketing I believe. It doesn’t mean that there has to be extreme personal hatred. To me it’s competition and that’s always what it was for me.”
No matter how much McGregor hated to see Hughes shake hands with Khabib and Usman Nurmagomedov after their fight, Hughes isn’t going to change his attitude just because it upset the most famous fighter from his home country.
Hughes wants nothing more now than to avenge his loss to Usman in a rematch, but it’s nothing personal between them. He’ll keep things professional and let McGregor just speak for himself.
“Look of course there’s mutual respect there,” Hughes said. “I respect anybody on the planet that gets in that cage gets my respect, regardless of what level it’s at. Now of course if you’re a successful athlete where I’m at, I know what it takes to get there and I know the sacrifices that you must [go through] to get here. I have respect for all these guys.”
