One of the side effects of spending time in the company of one of the world's most well-known athletes is that you're going to meet some famous faces. Kanye West waited backstage to meet Conor McGregor following the Diaz rematch last month. Before that, Justin Timberlake was seen waiting patiently to get a photograph with the Irishman at a recent UFC event. Arnold Schwarzenegger, though, was doing this before it was cool.
Back in 2013, Conor McGregor injured his knee in a victory against Hawaiian fighter Max Holloway and was on the shelf for the best part of a year while he rehabbed the injury. While doing so, McGregor struck up an unlikely friendship - Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Congrats to the McGregor-nator @TheNotoriousMMA on terminating another opponent. Can't wait for your world championship fight. I'll be there
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) January 19, 2015
Arnold promised McGregor that he would be in the building when the Irishman won his first UFC world title and, being a man of his word, the Austrian Oak showed up for the UFC 189 clash between Chad Mendes and Conor McGregor.
After the fight, Schwarzenegger went backstage to congratulate the new interim UFC featherweight champion and, as Owen Roddy told us on Episode 4 of the Balls.ie MMA Show (which you can hear in full below), an opportunity was spotted.
It was insane. I had met him the night before when Conor won (the Mendes fight). I don't like annoying people for selfies, but it was Arnold Schwarzenegger! I walked straight past everybody he was talking to and asked could I get a picture. He said, 'yeah, of course, of course!'
I took the picture and it was blurry! I walked off devastated, thinking I'd lost my shot. And then [later] Conor's like, 'Arnold's coming over just to say hi'. He walks in the door and he's very nice, real cool, real down to earth. He's telling us all stories about weightlifting and all sorts and everyone is just eating the words out of his mouth. It was unbelievable.
But he went to use the toilet - and there was no toilet roll. It was a bleedin' disaster! He walks in to the toilet and we're all like, (whispering) 'Fuck! There's no toilet roll! What are we gonna do?'
Everybody just looks at each other panicking. It was surreal. It was unbelievable to meet him. Such a legend, such an icon.
Just another day in the life of Conor McGregor.
Listen to the full episode of the Balls.ie MMA Show with Owen Roddy below.
