Last night saw RTÉ air the first episode of its six-part Conor McGregor documentary 'The Notorious'.
It dealt with the period leading up to his comeback fight against Diego Brandao at the o2 in Dublin as he dealt with the knee injury which had kept him out of the Octagon since the previous summer.
On what motivates him.
After all this talk, after all the buildup, if I don’t turn up and do the job, Irish martial arts is pushed back five or 10 years.
So, it means everything for my family, my gym, my team-mates. Every martial artist in this country. I can’t just win. I must dominate.
McGregor on the logic behind his bravado.
Go now and say what you're going to do to this man and the rest of these people in this division. Say how you're going to obliterate them, how you're going to eliminate the whole division, wipe them out. That gets you from here to here...
I have this game exactly where I want it, by the scruff of the neck. Straight from the go. Two fights I've only had on a prelim card and I'm headlining a fight at home. People can hate and say what they want, but look what it's after getting.
His obsession with controlling the human body.
With all due respect, I hate everything else. I just don't have time for it. If it doesn’t involve shutting down the human body, if it doesn’t involve controlling the human body or manipulating it into a position where it is forced to submit or where it is forced to give. If it doesn't involve that, I don’t want to know.
To be able to control the human body with your own body, with your own pressure and with your own movements, that’s a science right there. To shut down another man’s body.
Comparing himself to Vincent van Gogh.
I’ve lost my mind doing this. Like Vincent van Gogh. He dedicated his life to his art and lost his mind in the process. That’s happened to me. But fuck it.
When that gold belt is around my waist and when my mother has a big mansion, when my girlfriend has a different car for every day of the week, when my kids' kid have everything they ever want, then it will pay. Then I’ll be happy I lost my mind. I’ll die a crazy old man.
Paddy Holohan (SBG fighter) on what being in the UFC means to him.
I set out to do this. I just always knew I had something in me to go that other way. I was all in from the start. I'll always be all in, you know what I mean?
When my son came about, to be able to say to your son, 'I'm going to be in the UFC, I'm going to chase my dream'. For him to be able to see that is a gift that no one can give their kid.
Unusual - contemplating defeat.
If I do not win then I'm the guy that talked the talk but did not walk the walk. My career is done. I'll be back fighting in front of 100 people in GAA halls for €150.
On Diego Brandao already believing he's beaten.
It was weird. He was talking about a rematch in Brazil. We haven't even walked out for the weigh-in and he's saying 'rematch in Brazil'. I'm going to knock you out in one round. Rematch in Brazil!
So it's like he's already talkin' about defeat. It's crazy.
Tony McGregor's (Conor's father) poem as the family prepare to head to the o2.
Conor said he's going to bring the UFC back to town,
It's here now and he's not leaving anyone hanging around,
His boys are with him all on the card,
Fighting fit, staying ready and training very hard,
Now listen up everybody, let there be no worried faces,
Because tonight in the o2 Dublin, we hold all the aces.
