Conor McGregor: "Mayweather would not last a minute with me...I would love to fight him"

Conor McGregor doesn't walk into the hotel lobby. He struts, head back, pecs forward, buttoned-up skintight T-shirt fit to burst with a triangular upper body that tells the tale of thousands of hours of training and fighting. He is with his long-term girlfriend, Dee Devlin, and they strut towards me together, both smiling. We are in his native Dublin, where McGregor, a former plumber, has become one of its most famous sons since rising quickly through the ranks of the Mixed Martial Arts "Premier League", UFC. With his fighting skills and fighting talk, this 27-year-old has become one of its biggest stars, about to sign, he tells me, the largest fighter's contract in the sport's history.

On 12 December, in Las Vegas (where else?) he is due, finally, to fight UFC long-running featherweight champion José Aldo of Brazil. They should have fought in July, but Aldo pulled out due to a broken rib, so instead McGregor fought and beat American Chad Mendes to become "interim featherweight champion". It is a sore point; he is not an "interim" kinda guy. 

As you read on, I want you to hear the thick Irish accent, and the words coming at you in torrents; to feel the intensity of dark but smiling eyes that never take their gaze from you. And I want you to know that while some of what he says is likely to come over as arrogant bullshit, the overall impression is of someone supremely able, and likely to do all the things he says he will. I can't recall ever being in the presence of a confidence quite like it.

AC: So the last two GQ interviews I did were with José Mourinho and Nicola Sturgeon...

CM: Who's Nicola Sturgeon?

AC: Are you serious? Scotland's first minister.

CM: Listen, I am in the fighting game, I don't care about anything else. I don't watch the news, I don't care about politics, I don't care about other sports. I don't care about anything I don't need to care about. This is my sport, it is my life. I study it, I think about it, all the time. Nothing else matters.

AC: Do you know who Ireland's prime minister is?

CM: Do we have a prime minister? [Laughs.]

AC: Yeah, the Taoiseach.

CM: Ah yes, Enda Kenny... but my fans think I am the Taoiseach.

AC: Who is the British prime minister?

CM: Is it Tony Blair? No, he's gone. It's - oh give me a second - Cameron, yeah, Cameron. I am just not interested. I think we should all focus on who we are, what we want to do, and do it. That is my way. I don't know why anyone would want to do that politics stuff.

AC: So you don't vote?

CM: I've never voted, no.

AC: Are you religious?

CM: I believe in believing. My coach John Kavanagh is a big atheist and he is always trying to persuade people to his way of thinking, and I think what a waste of energy. If people want to believe in this god, or that god, that's fine by me, believe away. But I think we can be our own gods. I believe in myself. 

AC: When was the last time you read a book?

CM: A full book? I don't know. I've read a lot of books on the laws of attraction, and in my home I have a big book on Muhammad Ali, which I've read, because he is like a hero of mine, but other than that, no, I'm not a big reader.

AC: So you think you have to be absolutely obsessed with what you do, not think about anything else?

CM: To do anything to a high level it has to be total obsession. Ask José Mourinho, he wouldn't know a thing about me, my sport - he knows football, and to get to high levels you have to be insane, nothing else means anything. I respect all forms of movement and lifestyles, but I am in a bubble. I wake up, it is in my head; I go to sleep, it's in my head, 24/7.

AC: If you don't beat Aldo in December...

CM: [Interrupts loudly.] What? What are you talking about? I have beaten him already. He is dead. Look at his body language. His body is weak and his mind is weaker. I can smell the lack of confidence. If the mind is not in it, the body won't follow. He cannot beat me. He knows it. It's why he went running last time.

AC: So you don't buy that it was a real injury that forced him to pull out? The x-rays looked like it.

CM: Nah! Real champions fight through adversity. 

AC: They all say that.

CM: But do they mean it? I mean it, I really mean it. Fourteen weeks before the Mendes fight I tore 80 per cent of my ACL [anterior cruciate ligament]. That is the main ligament for stability. Every day in that training camp when I was working my way back, I was saying "real champions fight through any adversity". That is why I am a real champion and he is not. Look at my eye [he had seven stitches put in an old wound after an injury in training the night before we met]. Fighters fight on. Aldo got scared, he went running and I worry he will run again.

AC: But for all you know Aldo feels just as confident as you do.

CM: No way. I can hear it in his voice, I can see it in his eyes, I know when a man is beaten, and he is beaten mentally. I still don't think he will show. I am trying to be optimistic but I am never wrong, I always predict the outcome of my fights and I am never wrong.

AC: Can MMA overtake boxing?

CM: You kidding me? It's gone, boxing's gone. What is there in boxing? Who is there to talk about, who is there that people go, "Yeah I want to fight him?", and fans go "I wanna see that fight"? There's Floyd Mayweather, and he is 38, 39, he's maybe got one fight left. What else is there? He'll have a last fight or two and a couple of guys will get a few million dollars, but way less than I'm gonna be getting in future. This sport is getting bigger all the time, and I am making it bigger. 

AC: Do you respect Mayweather?

CM: I respect his business. He's made a lot of money, calls himself Money Mayweather, he has done that bit well. I don't know the guy. But I know if we had a fight I would win. I could box against him, give him a fight, but he couldn't fight against me, it is a different sport, ours is a tougher sport. He would not last a minute with me because of the things we have to do which they don't do in boxing. 

AC: Could it happen, you and him?

CM: Who knows? He is getting on, but I would love that. I would love to fight him. Boxing is going to have to catch up with the kind of things UFC is doing. They're getting left behind.

AC: I read that whereas 70 per cent of Premier League money goes to the players, you guys get about ten per cent. Is it not all a bit master and slave?

CM: Not with me it's not. Maybe with some of the others, but what do they actually bring to the sport? Are they bringing new fans? Are they bringing in the numbers? I am doing that, more than anyone. The numbers are going up and up, the crowds, the ticket proceeds, the Pay Per View, it is all going to new levels and I am driving it there. I am the one they want to see. I am changing this sport. I am signing a new contract the likes of which there has never been. Share of ticket sales, share of pay per view, I am rewriting the rules. 

AC: Do you like money?

CM: I love money, and I love movement. I like what it has let me do for my family. I have paid off my mum and dad's mortgage, I've bought them two BMWs, they can have anything they want. I am buying a fleet of cars for myself. I have unemployed my sisters, they don't need to work, don't need to worry about a thing. I have unemployed my girlfriend. She had a job working for a cardiologist and now she can hang out, put her feet up, buy all the things she wants, have a nice breakfast with you and me in the Four Seasons. Any fights in families like mine come from everyone worrying about money. I'm taking all those worries away. That makes me feel happy, makes me really proud of what I do.

AC: What do you mean when you say you love movement?

CM: I mean I love movement. I mean the energy that comes from the way I move. We get energy from how we move. I mean the control I get from knowing everything about how my body feels and how it is working.

AC: Mayweather set out to be the richest athlete on the planet, and he did it. Do you seriously think you can you get to that position?

CM: Mayweather is called Money; he has been good at the business. But I am 27, I am about to sign a contract that is going to be worth $100 million over the next few years. 

AC: How much?

CM: Could be more, we are still talking. Haven't put pen to paper yet but it is a totally new approach in this sport. I am going to be making the kind of money Mayweather wasn't making when he was 27. I am changing the rules. There are not that many in UFC who are millionaires, maybe less than ten, I am going for multi-multi-millions.

AC: Less than ten, but the guys who run the sport...

CM: Are billionaires, they're running casinos and stuff.

AC: The fighting will all have to end one day. Do you worry about that?

CM: I will cross that bridge when it comes. I am not stupid. I am a very bright guy. I know that in the fighting game, you get people who get brain damage and do themselves long-term harm. I am into it in a big way, and I am good at it, and I am going to get very, very rich and then I will get out and we will see what comes after that.

AC: Which is most important of the skills - boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, jiu jitsu?

CM: You need to be able to hit, kick, grapple, wrestle, but for me so much of this is about the mind, about feeling you are in complete control of the space around you, and you know what to do at any moment. That is a wonderful feeling, but it doesn't just happen, you have to work for it, train for it, think about it all the time. 

AC: Do you dream about it?

CM: Loads. And I daydream too. I visualise. I think ahead, I can do it now, sitting here. I think ahead to the walk-in, I can hear the crowd, the music, I can feel the cameras all around me, I can feel movements in my body as I am heading there, I can bring up that incredible feeling you get when you step into the cage. The surface below your feet is so special. It is not like a boxing ring, not like a wrestling mat, it's its own thing, and when I am there, I am floating, I am moving with total freedom, I am free. And when you know, when you just know you are going to win, like I do, there is no better feeling.

AC: Mayweather told me he never ever thinks about losing. Are you the same?

CM: I am now. I thought about losing twice, and guess what, they were the fights I lost. I've learned to push all those kind of thoughts right out of my head. 

AC: But fear of losing can be a great motivator.

CM: Sure, but not if it drains your confidence. One of the reasons I got into this game was because I wanted to learn how to get myself comfortable in uncomfortable situations. I grew up in a tough area of Dublin, and fighting was just part of your life. Boys fight, and I won some, but I lost a lot too, and I didn't like that, I didn't like that feeling of not knowing whether I was in danger, in trouble. So even back then, I studied every move, I became fascinated by thinking what I could have done differently. And I take that approach now as a professional. I am on it, all the time, never stop thinking, learning. You don't get to be world champion unless you do that...

AC: Interim...

CM: F*** that, what do you mean interim? Aldo and I had a date, he didn't show, someone else took his place, I beat him, easy. So don't give me interim. 

AC: When you are slagging off Aldo now, is that part of the fight?

CM: For sure. It is never-ending. It is non-stop psychological warfare. You have to get inside their heads, f*** with them. I can read minds, I know what they're thinking.

AC: So what is to stop them getting inside your head?

CM: They can't. I'm bulletproof.

AC: OK, if you can read minds, what am I thinking about you now?

CM: I don't give a f***. We're not fighting. I don't care what anyone thinks about me. All the stuff I have to do outside the fighting, the promotion, this, I don't give a f***. But when I am facing up for a fight, I know what they're thinking. I can read their minds. When I am going face to face with an opponent, nose to nose, I can smell the fear, and I'm feeling no fear at all.

AC: You've got a reputation for trash-talking during the fight. Doesn't it tire you out, what with everything else you have to put into it?

CM: No. It gives me energy. And it can get to them. So when I fought Mendes I would be saying into his ear, "You're hitting like a bitch, you're hitting like a woman," and then when I can feel he is lacking a bit of energy, I stand there and say "You're tired already, one minute in, you're f***ed." And if it's true, it hurts. 

AC: How does it feel when you knock someone out with one blow?

CM: Victorious. I feel that is why I did all the training, why I make the sacrifices, that is why I got into the shape I am in. I feel I have won,   that's millions more coming my way, I feel great.

AC: What is this rear naked choke I keep hearing about?

CM: It is the most powerful submission in the sport. It is a beautiful thing. You're holding them into you, their back is on you, and you are basically choking them gradually like a boa constrictor and once you've got them, the pressure goes on and they have to submit or they are going to stop breathing. It happened to me early in my career, and I panicked, and gave in, I tapped out too early. I learned a lot from that. I learned from it, learned how to do the move better, learned how to avoid it being done to me. 

AC: But physically how do you get into that position to be able to do it?

CM: I'll show you. [He picks up a phone and calls up a video on YouTube of a previous fight. He commentates on his own moves, explains how he is manoeuvring his opponent to the position he wants him in.] Look, here it comes, any second, watch for the tap, the tap is coming, there, you see, he taps, he's lost, all over, great feeling. You can win in loads of ways but the rear naked choke, that is the best, that is a real win.

AC: How does your mum feel when she is watching you fight?

CM: We ought to have cameras on families watching. She either runs out or she puts her hands over her eyes. I can see why she might worry, but she shouldn't.

AC: What is the worst pain anyone has ever had inflicted on you?

CM: I don't feel it. I honestly don't. 

AC: But you've said when you really land one it can be the equivalent of being hit by a truck.

CM: Yeah, and I have had blows land on me, but I honestly don't feel it. I don't know why. I'm just staying focused on what I need to do next. 

AC: How much training do you have to do?

CM: A lot, but I don't have a routine, I hate routines. I train when I feel like it. 

AC: You don't know today what you will be doing tomorrow?

CM: No. Sometimes I train in the middle of the night, all on my own. Can't sleep, don't want to sleep, get up, go to the gym, work. This is early for me, being here at half ten in the morning, this is really early, and I'm only here because I screwed up yesterday and kept you hanging around. Other times I'll call up my wrestling coach, or my jiu jitsu coach, or my deep-tissue guy, and want to really focus on one part of what I do. I train in all these different disciplines. I do yoga. People think it is easy, just touching your toes. It is hard. But I tend to go with my own flow. It's back to the movement thing. I feel it when I need to train, and I do what I feel I need to do. And when I am in the run-up to a fight, I am really at it the whole time, might be getting my weight down to meet the limit for the division. Soon I am moving up and I am going to be champion in the next one too.

AC: Interim or real?

CM: Say "interim" again and you'll be polishing my belts for me. Both of them.

AC: When was the last time you cried?

CM: I am not a big crier. But I'd say it was after the Mendes fight. It was not because of the fight as such. It was everything leading up to it. It had been such a tough time. When I did my knee, I had some very dark times. Life is all about ups and downs and I'd say there had been a lot of downs, but I got through it, I won and after the fight, I was standing in the shower and I was crying, just letting it all go.

AC: I have read some pretty colourful accounts of how people react to you when they're watching you train, and there seems to be something a bit homoerotic about it, do you see that?

CM: I don't know, I don't think so. When I'm in there I'm just in my zone. What people think about when they're looking at me, that's their business. If there is a bit of that, I am fine with it, each to his own.

AC: What's with the tattoo of a gorilla eating a heart on your chest?

CM: Doesn't mean a thing. I just like it.

AC: Did you always know you were going to do something like this?

CM: I always knew I would be something special.

AC: And do you really not watch other sports at all? 

CM: Ach, if something's on I might take a look, but this is the sport I study, all the time.

AC: Not even rugby?

CM: I might watch a bit of that because at least with rugby it's about attack and defence, and aggression, and how you use the force you have, and I might see things in that I can think about with regard to what I do.

AC: Would you watch golf? 

CM: Golf isn't a sport, it's a game. I'm not saying it's not a difficult game, with lots of mental stuff. But it's not a sport like mine. Where is the combat, the intensity of what we do?

AC: Formula One?

CM: It's just machines. I'm not interested. 

AC: Were you not a bit embarrassed when [UFC owner] Lorenzo Fertitta called you 'the Irish Muhammad Ali?' Ali is unique.

CM: Sure he is. But maybe Lorenzo just saw something in me and he felt that was the way to express it. I wasn't embarrassed. I am honoured if people think something like that.

AC: You once said the Irish have no feelings, and that is why you're a great fighter. But I would say the Irish are among the most feeling people in the world.

CM: I say all sorts of things. I was probably just winding someone up. I love being here. This year I have hardly been home, I've been in the States, travelling all over, my training camp was in the desert. But this time I am going to have the training camp right here. When we got off the plane the other day, and walked through Dublin airport, it felt great, and I thought I want to be here when I am doing all the hard work before the fight. We got to the house and my girlfriend had done the place up with loads of memorabilia from all my previous fights, and it just felt fantastic to be home.

Credit: GQ