Paul Kimmage has grown weary - like many - of the Conor McGregor shtick. All the trash-talk for him is worn and vacuous.
Kimmage awoke at 6 am on Sunday morning shortly before Nate Diaz choked out Conor McGregor at the MGM Grand. However, it wasn't until he switched on his phone to see a tweet from Off The Ball informing that McGregor had lost that his interest in the fight piqued.
The Sunday Independent journalist does have admiration for what McGregor has achieved. Speaking on Newstalk's Off The Ball, he related so.
As an Irish person you always root for your own and you always want your own to do well. I've got great admiration for McGregor, a working class kid who has come from his background and done what he has done, it's a fantastic achievement. You have to admire that.
Having watched McGregor's post-fight interview, one in which he was obviously cowed by defeat, Kimmage imagined the loss to be a 'right kick in the nuts' for the Dubliner and one which will make him a more self-effacing individual.
The recent occurrence which particularly riled Kimmage in relation to McGregor was his claim to be the first Irishman on the cover of Sports Illustrated - he was just 47 years shy of that achievement.
There's another part of me that says a lot of people - myself included - woke up this morning not too disappointed that he'd lost.
A lot of the stuff that he's come out with has been really objectionable and obnoxious and we like our champions to be gracious and to have a sense of humility. We obviously haven't seen any of that at all.
I really objected to this tweet he sent out during the week bragging about the fact that he was the first Irishman to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated - what a nonsense. Then when it was pointed out to him, he didn't have the grace to accept that he'd made a mistake and to acknowledge that 'Ireland has produced some great champions before me. I haven't invented this world. There actually were great people in Ireland in sport before I came along.' So that was a serious weakness.
So this will be a lesson for him and I've heard the interviews with him and it's obvious he's got a right kick in the nuts. He needs to learn from that now and move on. He'll be a better person because of it.
You can listen to Kimmage, along with former Olympian Gary O'Toole, on Off The Ball's Sunday paper review.
