Further to Conor McGregor’s win in Las Vegas against Chad Mendes…
Brian Manning writes:
A painting I did of the the Notorious recently. It feels like Italia ’90 when I watch him fight!
Conor McGregor crowned UFC interim featherweight champion (RTE)
Update:
Fake fight!
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Truly a sport for the proletariat.
The snobbery on show in most of the comments in pretty unnerving and quite telling.
Italia 90? c’mon. A national team with top players representing an entire country V a bigmouth beating the crap out of someone in a cage
Knackery bandwagoners. Ken Early gave a nice insight into the Irish fans in Vegas, semi comatose and depressed sitting over gambling tables at 7am.
“Knackery bandwagoners.”
YES! Thank you, that’s the perfect term.
Same with Rory McIlroy loyalists – the man’s a sole trader representing himself, raking in a fortune for himself in a grandads game – how they vicariously get thrilled is beyond me.
Not to mention a face like a plague doctor
Yous are all truly compelling company I’m sure.
Come on, that’s not really fair. Perhaps the lads scrapping outside the chippers at 3am feel the same collective euphoria about UFC that Irish people felt in 1990. Who’s to say that in 25 years time there won’t be some grainy phone footage showing some lads, who just watched CMcG win in Las Vegas, happy slapping homeless guy on the millennium bridge. You know, just like the old VHS footage that exists of the Walkinstown roundabout filmed immediately after the Ireland Romania penalty shootout.
ha, very good
The behaviour and humbling congratulations between Conor and Chad at the end of the fight was one of the best pieces of sportsmanship i have ever seen.
Dana White can certainly write a story line.
I think you should wander down to your local MMA gym and tell the men and women who train there that what they do if fake and all staged and that they are spending years of their lives training in combinations of martial arts and olympic combat sports just so they can pretend. I also suggest you watch the MacDonald v Lawler fight from saturday night and decide if that was fake.
Jonotti sitting at home hammering the ‘hit nerve button’.
Drogg reacting with aplomb.
I thought that was a measured response for a monday morning.
Jonotti is clearly trolling, you reacted pretty much as he wanted you to.
Gotta say though, the UFC really do make it easy to push the scriptwriting angle.
If they go full WWF they need to bring in the love interest story lines like they had back in they day with the Macho Man and Miss Elisabeth.
While Dana White can certainly decide who gets to fight who he can’t really control what happens in the ring.
Right now McGregor and Rousey are the biggest names in the sport so of course he’s going to push them and use them to promote the sport. McGregor has a well crafted media persona that lends to easy promotion. It’s also a persona that rubs a lot of people the wrong way, just like Chris Eubank used to.
The last time I checked, watching the sport was not compulsory so those who don’t like it know what they can do.
Rousey is one of the most impressive athletes in the world right now. After seeing the latest pictures of the upper body muscles Rousey has built, Corriea is going to seriously regret ever making those suicide comments.
Two lads in nappies grappling at each other. If that’s what your into, flake away. Alwas reminds me of this:
https://youtu.be/pk3ds-VFKBs
The sport is real at most levels but this is different. We have in ufc a single promoter that was going backwards in the past few years. It’s obvious that things are being manipulated.
It will be interesting to see if they do the Bellator UFC champion fights which seems to be in discussion, they only thing is that Bellator seems to have a major PED problem that no one is willing to address.
How was it any different from any high profile boxing bout? ‘Imma gonna knock his head off’ then cut to the end ‘he was full of heart gave me the fight of my life’
That’s not humbling and if you think its amazing sportsmanship you need to watch more sports. Djokovic alone was more humble yesterday. Try the new zealand runner who joined the blackp panther olympic salute for more sporting.
Or was it just because chad said the irish were great altogether?
I thought Chad giving Conor the big hug thanking him for being part of the biggest fight of the year and yes it is nice that he thanked the fans its nice to see someone recognise that the fans brought a whole other element to the proceedings And to be honest the current stock of high profile boxers out there could learn a thing or two from these guys as people like mayweather have destroyed boxing forever.
And breathe….
I will leave these here ….,,,,,,.,.,.,.,,.,.,.,. add them in where you see fit.
Mayweather has no more destroyed boxing than Chelsea have destroyed football. He’s a defensive counter puncher and always has been. It’s a strategy that’s worked very well for him but it doesn’t make his fights particularly exciting.
Have to feel for Chad. If he’d had a few more weeks to prepare that could have been a different fight but that’s not McGregor’s fault. No doubt there’ll be a rematch when McGregor deals with Aldo, assuming Aldo can find the spine to turn up.
I think a rematch between these two with full training camps would be a huge draw. I think i would be a better fight then Aldo / McGregor.
No doubt and Chad deserves it for stepping in like that. When he stood up at the end of the second round he was blowing hard and too slow to move away from McGregor. With a full training camp that wouldn’t have been the case.
I can’t help but think that McGregor could do with working on his stand up defence. Using the Rocky approach, while demonstrating his ability to take a dig, leaves him very vulnerable.
I hope that was a one fight thing as he was trying to prove to his detractors that he could take Chads huge right hand. But that could leave him very vulnerable especially to Aldo’s superman punch.
As long as they don’t try to learn anything from the truly woeful boxing/defence element of any MMA I’ve seen.
He was Australian and he didn’t join in.
My mistake, he was australian.
He wore a human rights badge in solidarity.
It sends a tingle up my spine too when I see an Irishman act the clown and then take part in a stage-managed scumbag brawl for a made up title in a “sport” that the world could, frankly, do without.
Yeah, I don’t know anything about it either.
All titles are made up
It is noted that this one topic brings out the most trollful and genuinely disturbed self-hating commentariat.
Self-hatred, really? Is Conor all of us? Does he need only look into his own heart… etc?
Gerrahgrip chicken!
It would appear that you only need to look into your own handbag
Wait till he steals a bike from outside Youth Defence’s offices.
I am Conor.
Conor is me.
congratulations on your world title win “bud”
@Joe – So your tiresome one-note “stop liking what I don’t like” nonsense in any post relating to Rugby is obviously fine and hilarious, but if its someone having a needle at something that you actually do like then its “trollful and genuinely disturbed self-hating” commentary?
Black fly in your chardonnay, etc. etc. – Someone Alanis a ring.
LEN STIR LEN STIR
Great response. There’s the scintillating wit you’re known for.
That is not a good painting.
The face is good, the torso is a bit cactus
Now do one of Tony Cascarino.
I love gaa, now I love rugby, now I love soccer now I love this sport. jesus tiz sad
Why is humility seen as such a necessary trait?
I’m so proud of our very own home-grown trained-ape.
Delighted he battered dah durty lukn chung’fellah.
It feels like the last time I watched two chav thugs beat the face off each other over a batter burger at 2am.
A tad more discipline and commitment involved
That’s very judgemental.
“My brawling scumbags are more disciplined than yours”
Just because the thugs I watched are amateurs? Would you say that about the GAA -v- Premier League footballers?
Are they paying the GAA in batter burgers now ? Jaysus
That makes no sense – they don’t pay GAA players, and the howya’s who beat the shit out of each other otuside Macari’s don’t get paid for it either – how come your guy is a sportsman worthy of awe-filled national blowjobs and my guy is a scumbag? Aside from the fact your ape gets money?
I love the national blow job image in fairness but ye canny be comparing apes fighting over batter burgers and a dedicated sportsman, I was trying to highlight that or am I getting the wrong end of your battered sausage waving ?
https://youtu.be/RIStcoGrDxY
That’s a good impression.
Billy Connolly met McGregor years ago @ 2:55: https://youtu.be/JX0_KRmlGiw
Has any other minority sport ever received coverage on this scale in Ireland? Not so much here but a once decent and fun site like Balls.ie is a total no go zone these days for anyone who used to like the broad jovial looks they’d take at sport from around the world. It’s a glorified UFC site now. It’s bandwagoning of the highest order too because an athlete from here happens to be at the top or reaching the top of his profession but why the need to pretend he’s now some global phenomenon? He’s not. In a worldl wide sense he’s not very well known at all. Why must we always feel the need to convince ourselves otherwise? “The whole world is talking about us” etc ..It’s still a very, very small sport on a global stage.
Why must we always try to put down sports that Irish athletes do well at?
Conor McGregor – it’s just scumbags and thuggery and nobody really watches it
Katie Taylor – it’s only women boxing and it’s only amateur
Stephanie Roche – It’s only girls football. Stick her in front of a premier league defence and see how she gets on
The Irish Rugby team – there’s only 8 countries in the world that play it at a decent level
The Irish Women’s rugby team – some of them only started playing a few weeks ago
Even people who turn up to watch their county team in the latter stages of the All Ireland get grief about where they all were for a division 3 league match on a wet February afternoon.
Roy Keane though, that’s a different story because that’s football and sure that’s the biggest and best sport in the world and he was world class.
Anybody who takes joy in these successes has to learn to ignore the whinging begrudging digs about bandwaggonery and real sports and all the rest of the negative garbage that plagues the Irish psyche.
Live is a short trudge from cradle to grave. What harm in taking joy from something instead of looking for reasons to run it and those involved down?
I trudge with you Sir
I cannot give that post enough plusses.
Well said bertie
Nice one Repro
Ah yes, this old chestnut of pointing something out and being called a begrudger. You are suggesting that that MMA is a global sport worthy of its current wall to wall coverage here then?
Fwiw, I think Katie Taylor has and is a phenomenon in a truly global sport. The Irish mens and womens rugby teams do incredibly well at holding their own and exceeding even, although your mention of it being a sport played in just a few countries is hardly something that should be dismissed. All I know about Stephanie really is that goal. It was a beautiful exhibition of skill and panache that was worthy of the coverage it got.
Also, this “begrudger” would like to give a shout out to Andy Lee, our current WBO Middleweight world champion and a man of real class and substance. You might not have heard of him cause he doesn’t crave attention or go out of his way to create a caricature of himself.
Funny thing about us “begrudgers” is we’re usually still committed to the teams and sports people we respect when the fad aficionados have long since moved on. Have a nice day.
Andy Lee? The one who was born in London and lived there until he was 14?
*runs from the begrudgers*
Yes, that’s the one. Place of birth is often just circumstantial, as it in his case. There are many factors at play in determining one’s nationality. He’s no less Irish than me and I was born here.
“He’s no less Irish than me and I was born here.”
Well, yes, technically, he is less Irish than you. Place of birth may be circumstantial, is living there for 14 years circumstantial too?
Yes, he’s no less Irish than me. As I said, place of birth is often consequential. He’s an Irish citizen born to Irish parents. In the UK your stance on this could be described as very Ukip – ish.
Excellent trolling there. I really liked how you completely ignored my point and then compared me to a UKIP voter. You will go far! 10/10 troll points!!!
+1….
But Roy Keane was a tool for walking out. At least he knows and acknowledges it these days, I suppose.
I find it very boring myself, iv friends who love and from what I know it Mcgregor is a bona fida Star in the USA, most of south America are big in to mma as well. So to say it’s not a well followed or minority is just idiotic.
He’s the most popular figure in MMA as we speak apparently. If he was truly a huge global star I’d imagine he’d have a twitter following in excess of 1 million. ( He has 2.5m less than a jobber footballer like Joey Barton fwiw). Don’t see why it’s such a big deal to acknowledge that this clearly minority sport is just that, a minority sport.
Calling Joey Barton a jobber footballer is like calling Ashton Kutcher a minor hollywood actor.
Auld Joey is well known for his twitter antics and as such has a far higher following than most footballers of his stature.
+1. I don’t like football but Joey is a great tweeter
I’m with Morrissey on this one, Joey is sound.
You don’t see why it’s such a big deal to wander in two days after an Irish athlete is crowned Interim World champion and point out, with no evidence beyond personal feeling to back it up, how small the sport he competes in is? (How could anyone see that as begrudgery?)
$7.2 million takings on the gate and pushing 1,000,000 pay per view sales but McGregor has less twitter followers than Joey Barton (though he has 604.5K more than Andy Lee) so what’s the big deal?
Of course I’ve heard of Andy Lee, one of Ireland’s 3 reigning professional boxing champions, but I fail to see what his lack of coverage has to do with the coverage that the UFC gets. I hope he sells out Thomond Park in September but if he wants to he might look at taking a leaf out of McGregor’s book. Of course Billy Joe Saunders will bring a lot of support and he might just surprise Andy too but hopefully not. In the meantime Irish boxing fans can see Carl Frampton defend his World title live on UTV Ireland on Saturday from 9:45.
$7.2m is a decent gate. Makes Rory McDonald’s $59,000 fee all the more shameful in this highly problematic industry. In fact that’s an outright disgrace. Maybe spreading some of the blanket coverage to this area of the sport wouldn’t be out of the question.
The sport of scumbags and knackers.
Big following in the Dail has he ?
You can take the scumbag out of Finglas …. etcetera.
Fairly sure he isn’t from Finglas but good effort.
Does it matter?
It makes your original point completely redundant, so yeah.
Where you from Paolo, let’s put that into your phrase instead.
Fair play to Conor he was taking some very sore looking elbows; he got up somehow after nearly breaking his neck slipping out of that arm bar and knocked Mendes out. Mendes had gone into full turtle crouch and could not defend himself, ref was right to call it when he did.
“full turtle crouch”
Jaysus……is that a thing in UFC?
nah t’is a purley Irish move …