Allow me to do the seemingly indefensible and defend the clickbait press for a moment.
Cathal Pendred wrote an interesting column for the Indo on Wednesday, criticising the Irish media for its build-up to McGregor-Dos Anjos. While media was fixated on McGregor's latest haircut or Rolls Royce purchase, it was overlooking the monumental historical occasion that was at hand: one man, an Irishman, was on the verge of winning titles in two weight divisions.
It’s not that Conor wasn’t getting any headlines, because that certainly wasn’t the case. He isn’t just ‘Notorious” inside of the octagon, he is notorious outside of it too. You just have to take one look at any internet outlet to see that he is the ‘click-bait king’...
Stories were being written if Conor changed his hairstyle or if he was seen within 50 yards of fast food restaurant, but nothing on the super fight.
I take Pendred's point - as a UFC fighter - that perhaps the online media wasn't giving the fight its due. But here's the thing - most of the media, and with that, many, and I daresay most, Irish people, don't know a thing about MMA or care about a lick about UFC. They are, however, perplexed, fascinated, intrigued and occasionally disturbed by the McGregor phenomenon and will click into almost story about him. McGregor, duly, has turned himself into a content machine. Note the four men filming him during the open workout Wednesday. That's on top of the man who was filming the scene.
We here at Balls have tried to pull back from the really stupid stuff on McGregor but it's tricky. Sometimes you get sucked back in. No Irish athlete has ever embraced media in this way.
None of this is to disparage those who work and train in MMA gyms or who follow the sport for a living. But as they'll know perhaps better than anybody, there is a hardcore mixed martial arts fandom and a massive bandwagon attached to McGregor. Nearly every day over the past two weeks, I've received an email from a young journalist who's written an analysis piece on McGregor vs Dos Anjos or Diaz. But while there may growing interest in the technical aspects of the sport, by and large, the general interest lies in the spectacle created by McGregor. Would Pendred himself be appearing in the Baywatch movie if he wasn't an Irish contemporary of Conor McGregor? I wonder.
When McGregor shuffles out of the octagon to pursue millions elsewhere, the bandwagon will die away. Then it will be interesting to see how coverage MMA gets, both in the clickbait media and beyond. Time will tell.
