Conor McGregor is pent up. As difficult as it may be to get in a cage and engage in hand to hand combat with some of the most highly skilled opponents on the planet, it seems, for McGregor, that's the comforting part of his life at the moment.
McGregor has made a career out of his ability as a fighter but he's made his fortune out of his personality. And, as tends to happen, it's that personality that is attracting the kind of interest that is getting too much to deal with. He may project a larger than life personality but, at the end of the day, he goes home and complains about being tired like the rest of us. And that aspect of things has crept up on him during his most recent stay at home.
He's spent most of 2015 training and working in Las Vegas but having been based in Dublin for the past two months, it would be fair to say that the spotlight is getting to McGregor now more so than it ever has before. Public appearances for charity turned in PR nightmares and going out for dinner has become a different activity altogether.
It's starting to take it's toll. Speaking to the Irish Examiner this weekend, McGregor explained how his recent promotional activity has forced to realise that it's time to 'go back into the darkness'.
Addressing the event in the Wright Venue which left hundreds of fans disappointed, McGregor explained how it was the perfect example of things have gotten out of hand on the promotional side of things.
I went upstairs to this little private room that they had for me. And there was about 400 people queuing all along the stairs. So I took some selfies, rang someone’s uncle in Canada who is a big fan, all that, but there was no way in hell I could have gone through everyone after a four-day run like that. I’d still have been there! So I had to go.
The fact that he has well and truly moved into mainstream appeal in this country means that the old classic of being interrupted in restaurants is now a daily reality. McGregor used the example of one individual who recently stopped him in a Dublin restaurant to explain just how invasive things can get when you project the kind of personality that he does.
She was going ‘Colin! Colin!’ Calling me the wrong name! ‘Colin! Colin! Can we take a picture with my kids?'. And me literally with a forkful of food in my mouth! But I said ‘Okay’, finished my food and done the thing. But then when one takes it a million come over.
There'll be plenty of people with the opinion that this is exactly what he's been looking for so he can't give out when it comes his way. But, for all his bravado, he's just a fighter at the end of the day and these things do seem to be getting the better of him.
Which is why we may be seeing less of the promotional activity between now and UFC 194 on December 12th.
So it’s all messing with my head a bit. That’s why I feel I just need to drift away for awhile. I need to say no sometimes. But then you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. I’m in a weird place in my head now.
He won't get sympathy from large parts of the country but for his fans, there's no doubt they'll just want to see him back in the Octagon doing what he does best as soon as possible.
