MMA Fighting - Eurobash: UFC 246 Edition

Episode Date: January 21, 2020

Reuters journalist Philip O'Connor and MMA Fighting's José Youngs join Petesy Carroll for a trans-Atlantic view on Conor McGregor's successful return in the main event of UFC 246. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome to a very special episode of Eurobash all the way from beautiful Las Vegas. I am all packed up. I'm just about to leave for my flight. And I've decided to get my intro out of the way for this week. But what a fantastic return to action for Connor McGregor. I really couldn't have gone any better for him. I felt all week. He really put his best foot forward.

He knocked it out of the park. He, you know, answered... questions put to him about a lot of things that have happened to him. Outside of the Octagon, he re-forged a relationship with Ireland through, you know, really celebrating the flag and his own Irishness after the result there and then speaking to RTE. And it really feels as though he's gotten a lot of ground back with the fans.

I mean, it felt as though on fight nights itself, everybody just, not everybody, but the vast majority of, people who had maybe soured from McGregor in his period of inactivity and with the losses, they were right back in there as soon as he had his hand raised. And my God, did he run through Donald Seroni? My God, he, 40 seconds, he absolutely destroyed him. I remember I was up in the VIP area looking down on the octagon in the T-Mobile arena. And as soon as they were in the cage, just looking at McGregor in there, just had a feeling it was going to be. be one of those nights. I said it to Jim

Edwards as soon as they're about in the cage, it was like, oh, he's going to run through him. Of course, those shoulder strikes to head kick and then that beautiful left-hand he landed as Saroni was hurtling to the canvas really. Very, very accurate. A way better version of Connor McGregor than we

saw against Habib. I mean, in terms of what he said, what he did, you know, how he looked. You know, I feel as though this was everything he possibly could have asked for this week. A great win for the UFC really as well and McGregor. You know, I was saying all week when I was speaking to Jose Young's

that this would be a factory reset. Like this would be almost a complete shift from what he was at USC 229 and show people why they loved him. They loved them on that initial assent and I think he did that very well. because like you know saying things is one thing but doing things is another and that performance you know even though donald seroni was merely a passenger for the whole thing you know kind of completely obliterated him the the performance is the the physical manifestation of the changes he's made right like i mean he can say that all he wants that he hasn't been drinking

that he's been on his best behavior but until you can pull out a performance like that it's hard for the general public and his fans to believe it, but it was resounding. There's absolutely no doubt about that. And look, you know, I know Connor had said something to about the video I made in the street there. I certainly wasn't the only one to allude to the fact that the Irish weren't traveling in numbers the way they used to. RTE made some pieces about that. ESPN had a huge one out just two days out before the event it was featured in McKenna, of course, who was, Chaos is my friend, the Connor McGregor story. Not a very flattering look of Connor.

That was featured as well. And look, the Irish didn't travel. I think I'm justified in saying that the Irish people didn't have the same interest ahead of this event. But that might have changed. For me, it's changed substantially. I'm not trying to say everybody in Ireland is now 100% back on. on the Connor McGregor bandwagon.

It's not like that. And I can see that from my Twitter feed when I shared out the Connor McGregor interview. He did post-fight with RTE. You know, I said, like, look, this is the best look he could have put forward for the week. He's talking to his fans. He's saying, you know, they hold me accountable, saying basically, if I do misbehave, they want me to answer for that. And it's good that he understands that.

And I think it was, you know, it was really humble of him to do that interview. And but I can see after I've said, look, this is a good thing, people in the, in the comments and stuff. And I think that's, that's going to be the way for a long time until some things are resolved, of course, that, you know, I'm not really obliged to speak about. You know, like in the, in the old times, we would have seen that, you know, videos popping up all over the MGM and stuff. And that's another reason why it's actually hard to gauge the Irish fans over here. Like, I'd have no idea. I know it wasn't a lot, but I wouldn't have a clue how many ways. here because when Conor fought Mendez and Aldo in the MGM Grand after the fight you you walk

straight out in the casino and you can just see this sea of Troy Colors and green so it's a bit different when it's in the team over the arena because it's not attached to anything you know um you know he he was a you know based on this week alone he was a great example of the to of the Irish people you know he he definitely was I didn't feel that any time anything was uncomfortable I felt he carried himself like a sportsman. And, yeah, like, the momentum is back now. Look, like, all we're talking about now is, who's he going to fight next? Horheim Azvedal, Habib Nomegamedov, you know, all of these different names.

Like, these are the stories that we're talking about now. This is what Connor McGregor was always about. You don't know which direction he's going to go in. You know, it's always about an options game to him. and when you think he's going one way he'll go the other there's so many matchups of fields that are on the horizon for him at the moment like we have obviously habib which dana white believes is the the biggest fight you can make in combat sports

and horhey masvedal which a lot of people feel and a lot of my u.s colleagues feel as though it's probably the biggest moneymaker that the ufc can put on at the moment is cameron usman and you know there's there's Floyd mayweather still and and maybe Manny Pacchio Phil O'Connor certainly seems to think so but um it's all good momentum um I feel as though the Habib fight right now could uh could be tough you know like that that's a that's a pretty dark buildup and to book that fight again like these guys don't like each other they pretty much hate each other and after such a glowing glowing week for McGregor is it

Is it good to put him in against Habib? And bring all that stuff to the tension, all those tensions to the forefront again. Of course, Habib and Tony have to get it on on April 1st. But, yeah, Tony could really throw a spanner in the works there as well. My word, there is so much I play there now all of a sudden. Masvedal. I still haven't seen the interview on Fight Night.

Mazvedal was great with the media all week. You probably saw me and Jose having some of his mescal the other day. He obviously showed up at the arena on fight night with one of those Versace Robs on that McGregor kind of popularized during his Maymac open workout, I believe it was. You know, you see, like Soroni kind of did the proper 12 beside the Budweiser thing. I think you kind of have to appeal to Conner's. flattery nearly. I nearly have to flatter him slightly while trying to pick a fight

with him and maybe that's what Jorge has done. Like certainly I saw Sean Sheehan from severe M.A. saying it was you know he didn't really add any interest to the fight and you know and you'll hear Phil O'Connor talking later about like how

desperate it seemed but I didn't see it and I've been trying to see it actually I just can't find it anywhere and I haven't seen Stephen A. Smith either. Whoa people don't like that guy. but um yeah look it's all good things for mcgregor it's all good things for the ufc so many options um you know he he's won back a lot of the public favor and and i and i hope he sticks to it like this is the guy we want to see this guy doing well it's good for all of us if connor mcgregor is

doing well and look you don't want to see him uh you know doing all this crazy outside the case stuff like I mean, it just feels so unnecessary for a guy that's been, you know, done so many things, force his own path and become the biggest star in his own sport. Like, you know, we don't want to seem like that. We want to see the guy we saw last week, you know, rolling with the punches. I feel like he got so much more comfortable as the week wore on. Like, every day you see a new level of comfort for him. And then, of course, it kind of climaxes in that fantastic performance in the Octagon.

And he did a great job in the post-fight press conference as well. it seems like him. It seems like the old guy. And let's hope it is. Of course, you know, still a lot of people to win back. But well,

like, you know, a hugely successful week for him, you'd have to say. Now, one thing that's interesting to me about this

is that it's a really different story from an Irish perspective and a US perspective. That's why, yeah, this week I decided to get Phil and Jose. Jose Young's from the A side

on MMI com and of course Phil O'Connor the great Phil O'Connor a freelancer for Reuters and my spirit animal but I mean

the whole Irish support thing means absolutely nothing to the Americans they don't care at all excuse me they just care about Connor like Connor as you'll hear Jose speak about

later like they aren't they aren't MMA fans they're Connor fans they're only tuning in for Connor they might you know he might people who tune in to see Connor

might take interest in the sport later but the reason why they're tuning in is to see Connor even he said like I mean the pay-per-view numbers he reckons it's insane it feels like everybody was watching the fight and that'll speak a lot about Connor's selling power I mean you saw Dana White glowing afterwards saying he was probably worth over

two billion to the company I'm sure that's music to Connors ears too but I mean they don't really care about all this outside of the Octagon stuff they just because you know he's a prize fighter as far as are concerned. Like, he's, he's polarizing.

That's why people are tuning in the scene, whereas, you know, Conner's symbol is the Irish flag. And I guess as the ESPN clip showed, as my clip showed, some people felt as though his bad behavior reflected poorly on the Irish people. So it's kind of different, but I think we unanimously agree that this is a very good thing for Connor. And, you know, the more of this, the better movie, forward. And I feel as though

he's got back into the real McGregor territory now. This is the territory where people will doubt him in his next point. Everybody knew he's going to, like, you know, I know Dan Bilzerian pick cowboy and bet his gaff on it or whatever, but you know, everybody was favouring Connor. If a good Connor McGregor can show up here,

he can win. Now he's into the real McGregor stuff where it's like people are doubting him and he goes in and silences them. Like people will doubt him against Masvidal. Absolutely. You know, I think I'd favour Masvidal. right now against Habib. People will definitely fight Habib. They saw the first fight. I think I definitely fight favor of Habib right now. But this is what he does best. He knows how to silence as critics. He

knows how the silence is doubters. So I'm very, very intrigued to see what's next. I really hope it's one of them. Yeah, so I guess this is, this will be a test of whether Vintage McGregor is really here. He definitely seemed like it was the other night. So first of all, we'll go over to my of Phil O'Connor. This was his suggestion to walk up and down the strip as we did an interview, and it was really cool. It's great to have some other Irish journalists there. Like, I miss Noel greatly, my sweet Eurobash colleague.

I missed him loads over here. You know, you'd love to see Sean over here. I didn't really get to see Graham, who obviously works with McGregor. I saw Dave Fogarty briefly. And, you know, great to see submission radio guys, Jim Edwards, Oscar Willits from MacLife. Saw Ariel, of course. Mark Ramondi, New York, Rick, my own fantastic colleagues that keep their arms around me

and keep me bigged up the Casey and Esther, the goats, and of course, the Celtic Chicano, Jose Youngs. Yeah, so it's a great trip, but let's hope that a winning McGregor leads to even more Irish people heading you across the water for the next one because it's some of the great moments of covering. this sport come when you get a big group of Irish hacks together and we're all trying to put together what the narrative is here. So look, I'm going to go over to my talk with Phil on the

strip. It was pretty badass. We had a beautiful dinner afterwards in Jinseng Bibi-Q, a Korean barbecue, not the fat burger as we allude to in the interview itself. Always great to see Phil, the man's a legend. And look, it's two very different perspectives as far as I'm concerned from Phil and Jose. And Phil makes a great argument here because I was thinking I definitely want the Mazurad Alfoy. And Phil is a different way of looking at it. So let me know what just think. We'll be back here in about 20 minutes or so. And now for a very special interview, one of my favorite people and a mentor of mine, Phil O'Connor,

a man who has dragged me through to Tundra a few times and kept me in this game, is going to join me and discuss all that happened last night in the T-Mobile Arena. How are you, first of all, Phil? I'm pretty good. It feels absolutely tremendous to be popping my Eurobash cherry here on the Las Vegas strip, a stone's throw from the T-Mobile Arena. The Irish are back, baby, or are they? Yeah, I should point out, we're actually walking up the strip currently. People probably think I'm a bit of a weirdo with this headset on me,

holding an audio device on a microphone, but... You don't look at a place. at all around here, right? There's an Elvis guy from here, there's a Michael Jackson and Perstander. You just look like PT Cal from MNMAFighton.com. Like, you know, nobody believed that the real PT is here.

Nobody's asking for pictures, though. So, last night, I felt as though I felt it was a real tournament point for Connor. The whole week, really. This week, as soon as it kicked off from the Hellwani interview on ESPN

to the press conference, to the Scrum, you know, it was so different to what happened. and, you know, at UFC 229, which you covered as well. I mean, it's, it was very different. I feel like it's something that's kind of, you know, it's something that Irish people can relate to a lot more.

This guy having a bit of fun, this guy being happy. And then going in and getting the job done, of course, against Donald Serroney. It just feels like there's a lot of different takeaways this time around there was in October 2018. Yeah, well, I think what we've seen over the course of this week and this weekend is we've seen the rehabilitation of Connor McGregor, the fighter.

Now it's going to take a little while longer to rehabilitate Connor McGregor the man if indeed that could be done at all. But this week he's been incredibly professional, he's been incredibly gracious, he's actually been humble, words I never thought I'd be saying to you here on this trip, and he put in like an absolutely staggering performance of striking. Every opportunity he was given last night in those 40 seconds, he took it, you know. And it was very gracious afterwards, still very respectful towards Serroney and everything else like that, you know, and even respectful towards the future opponents, never once mentioned Khabib's name, called him that man the whole time, didn't get wound up when his name was brought up, you know. So it certainly was a step in the right direction after 15 months of, you know,

it was a real nightmare for Connor for the last 15 months. Everything he touched just turned to crap, you know. So for him, it must feel great this Sunday. Wherever he is in this town, it must feel great to be able to sit back and say, okay, I'm at least some way along the way towards redemption here. Yeah, no, that's perfect, really. That's exactly how I feel about it. But, you know, the thing was ahead of this fight, you know,

maybe there wasn't the same Irish support that he had before and look we didn't get the same numbers that we saw at the height of his career and look they were incredible traveling the numbers that were traveling were absolutely incredible as I often say that was the sporting moment of my generation you know so it's going to be

very hard to keep turning that out and compelling tens of thousands of people to come here but I did feel it shift now during the fight especially fight night you know people were telling me they weren't going to watch it at all but my WhatsApp was light up from back home and you could feel the support you know they were willing them to destroy

gal but the time the fight came around you know and um really afterwards this morning i was talking to a lot of people back home and it feels like they they have turned the corner with him now they're they're happy to see this guy going forward you know i think it's one of those things that's important to understand about connor mcgregor is that fans desperately want to love him but my jesus does he ever make it hard for us to do it you know and that's the really difficult thing you know they'll wave off some of the things he said to Dennis Sieve and Jose Aldo and that guy think it's only a bit of banter, it's only bit of crack. They'll almost wave off, punching the man to head in the bar

and they're going, ah, you know, but Irish people fight there all the time. But there is a limit, and there's always a limit. And unfortunately, Conor has occasionally stepped across that lion. Now, can he win the back? Absolutely. If he performs like he did last night a couple of times more, because, you know, as sports fans, we have a desperate case of amnesia, right? We're like goldfish. What happened last night, that's actually over, because we can now talk about the NFC

championship game of the NFL here instead, because that's the new thing. And the next, like, I mean, there's a fair. fight card and rally Carolina soon enough and we'll have moved on and moved on and then Soroni'll fight again and Conner will fight again and we'll have forgotten all these things you know and I think it's important that Connor did address some of the things with the Irish state broadcaster

RTE he gave them a very brief interview after the press conference last night Connor's always really good towards RTE because he feels he can speak to the Irish people and there I can't paraphrase him I can only say you know give you an idea what he said but he sort of did say that he wants the Irish people to love him again that he feels that he let them down he's been saying all week that he let a lot of people down

He let us team down and that kind of thing. So that's a good thing. But the important thing now is to stay on that track, and that's the hard part, right? You can do it. When you have the goal of, I'm going to redeem myself, I'm going to show people that this is the man I am, this is the real Connor McGregor and that kind of thing.

But maintaining that over a long time in the way many champions have struggled to do, you know, because when you get to the top of it, I wrote about it in the Irish Times newspaper over the weekend, there's no MMA mountains left to, thank you, Peezie. There's no MMA mountains left to climb for this guy. He's done everything in the game, you know?

And now it's just everything he does is about legacy, everything he says about legacy. So he needs to keep himself disciplined. He needs to keep himself focused. He needs to keep a date in his calendar when he's fighting because that keeps him out of trouble. You know, the devil makes work for idle hands and you don't want to make work for Connor McGregor's hands, especially not his left hand. Because that's just going to get you into trouble right there, you know. So, you know, I really hope that he can maintain that focus because, again, fans have an awful lot invested in this. Irish fans in particular, and I'm not just talking about the cash money the cost that come here.

people did come here to see him, maybe not in the numbers they did before, but they stayed up all night, they went to the watch parties, they bought the tickets, they bought the pay-per-views, and they deserve then a fighter that sort of repays that trust by behaving well, but also by performing in the Octagon. There's nothing you can say about what he did last night. It was absolutely flawless from the time the fight was waived on to the time it was waived off, you know. But his behaviour around, I think, is the biggest takeaway, but there's still definitely work to be done. There's still unanswered questions, there are maybe being investigated and that kind of thing. But that will all take his course, but he needs. He needs to be done. He's still definitely work to be done. He's still unanswered questions. But that will all take his course, but he needs to stay on the course now, whatever happens. Yeah, like, I've been kind of saying it's like nearly a factory reset, right? Like, I mean, he had all this bad stuff around him, the badness of the Khabib camp, but it feels like last night, it's like, right, he's back to winning ways, he's behaving himself impeccably all week, and now he can grow from this again. You know, he has laid the foundations for another run here with the UFC, and look, Dana White was beaming from ear to ear talking about the guy, and when you compel that many

people to watch a UFC event, you can't really blame the guy, can you? that's the thing. Conner is the cash cow at this organisation. Everything the UFC does with Conner is not because they love Connors, it's because they love money, right? And I would always maintain that the UFC should have done a better job. During Conner's turbulent times, they should have been the ones saying he's not their employee, he's a contractor,

as we all know, but they should have been putting an arm around his shoulders and saying, what is making you do this? Connor has alluded to the fact that he was in a dark place, that there were things in his personal life that were bothering him. Dana says he knew that, but he doesn't know what they are. To me, any sporting organization, be it a soccer league or a basketball league,

a fight league like the UFC is, it needs to put an arm around the shoulders of its employees. Because who are we dealing with here, right? We're dealing with people who haven't come maybe from the best of backgrounds. They find themselves in combat sports for a reason. It's because they're not afraid and because they don't do things and think about things in the way that other people do, right? So in some instances, they need help. We've seen the issues that some athletes have had with drugs. We've seen issues that they've had with depression. We've seen mental health issues cropping up. We've seen domestic violence issues cross. dropping up. All of these things aren't great, right? All these things aren't positive,

but it's what you do about them. And I think, you know, if they had a step in and tried to help Conner and said, okay, what can we do for you? What do you need from us to get through these difficulties? That would have been a great thing. Now Conner-Piers will have done that by himself, so it's a moot point. But, you know, they could certainly have done a little bit more in terms of taking care of their athlete because he is their biggest asset as well. What did you think of the presence over here? And, you know, I don't really want to keep bringing this up because, you know, it's done. As you said, this event is over but I mean did you notice many Irish people on the ground I know you have a friend who works

in Rearra one of the most famous Irish bars here I mean has he said anything to you about the feet on the ground so to speak with the with the gales yeah it was actually talking to him today and he was saying that the bar was very quiet last night so re Raw would be one of those places that people go who can't afford tickets to the team eyeball to team oh well they buy tickets for the watch party in that bar and it would usually be rammed to the rafters and then as soon as the fight is over the band starts and it's a great night it's had by all right But last night that wasn't there. They had maybe 200 people in a place that takes in 6,700 over the whole bar with the screens and all that.

There wasn't the same kind of buzz, right? For non-Irish Eurobatch listeners, we have a sport called Gaelic football hurling, right? And we call them Gah jerseys. They're the shirts you wear when you're playing those sports, right? You know the Irish are in town when you see the small clubs and the small county shirts torn up, you know? You hear the accents. You see the pasty faces here in January. They haven't seen sunshine since I don't know when, as Johnny Cash had it, you know?

and we haven't seen that many of those that's, absolutely there have been some of them but previously when we were here in 2016, 2015, the place was a wash with them, you know, after the fights there was fellas asleep all over the place, you know, that kind of thing. They were also Irish fans, Connor fans, who travelled out here

they'd spend all their money to get out here and to watch their manned fight. So those guys went there and those girls weren't there, but you know, they will probably be back. This is not a great time of the year for it. And if it continues on this curve, it's a very sort of painful and difficult and slow thing to do as well for him.

But if he continues on this curve of self-awareness and self-improvement, then there's no reason why they won't come back. That said, we're never going to have a 1-8-9 again. We're never going to have that night that you talk about in Dublin the whole time with a USC visitor there and the Irish went through the card like welfare. So, and nor should we be trying to recreate that. We should be trying to recreate new memories for newer fans coming into the game and all under the banner of this new Connor.

You know, I recorded coffee talk with my beautiful MMI fighting team members earlier on. And the thing they kind of keep bringing up is, like, yes, he's back to winning ways. They put him in a perfect matchup to get him there. But, I mean, it's a big step up now, whatever way you go, right? You go Habib and Mazvedal, all these guys with so much momentum, so much juice at the moment. I thought Connor did very well in terms of, you know, kind of getting one over on Masvedal yesterday. I think Masvado probably wore that Versace gown to kind of, Connor does like someone to appeal to his...

Oh, yes, absolutely. We have a friend here following us. But, sorry, I lost track. He did a great job I felt of kind of maybe winning the verbal war with Jorge Masvedal. I didn't see his interview on the broadcast, but I saw Sean Sheehan's tweeting. I trust that man very much. And he kind of said, didn't set the world on fire with it. I mean, it does feel as though we have several storylines now with Connor, right?

And they're all pretty much good things. They're all fight-related things, and we're kind of all pondering what's next. What do you think's next? I mean, if he had a loss last night, what was next was either Nate Diaz or Manny Pache or Floyd Mayweather, that was it, right? Now he can do whatever he likes.

Dana White seems to have, you know, be massively interested in getting the fight with Khabib Nurma Gimov on again. Is that the right fight to make for Connor? I doubt it, right? No. But last night, I have to say, it was the first time in a long, long time

that I felt that that Connor McGregor could beat Chhabib, right? Because he was just so precise. He was so sharp. Everything he did in terms of striking, striking end of the fight, everything he did came from his takedown defence. When Donald Soroni went in there to get that take down, his car stuffed it and then he went to work.

And that clinch worked, that shoulder and the clinch, that was absolutely masterful stuff. Oh, tremendous. But he's in a place where he would think of that now, whereas under Khabib, you know, a bit of water heavy, bit tired, hadn't trained properly and that kind of thing. You know, that made a very, very difficult fight for him back in 2018. But this time round, he was full of energy.

He looked powerful in there, but the precision was there. and the timing was there. So, you know, I do think he could beat Khabib. Should he take that fight next? I don't know. That's a tough call right there. Yeah, like, I hear a lot of people saying,

oh, well, he stood in the third round with Habib, but kind of wasn't the same dude. Like, that wasn't vintage McGregor. Like, last night looked far more like the guy we know, right? Like, I mean, as you said, very creative, like the strikes from the clinch to shoulders burst Saroni's face open, then the head kick. And then the first punch he landed as Seroonies crumbling the ground.

Like, it's a moving target. and he absolutely nailed him with the first left hand. Is that what you mean? Like it looks a far better Connor McGregor? Oh yeah. I mean, last night was the Connor McGregor that beat Eddie Alvarez. Last night was the Connor McGregor that beat Jose Aldo in 13 seconds, right? That was the difference.

That's a Connor McGregor we haven't seen in a long time. Not even against Floyd Mayweather. Did we see that level of, did we see that level of sort of punching, of timing, of technique, of head movement, and that kind of thing? He was in control from the offer and he did whatever he wanted in that fight. And if he's capable of doing that right now, then he's capable of taking on absolutely anybody. You know, who he should take on. I maintain that, you know, the redemption story, the redemption storyline that's going on with Connor,

Khabib, Nate Diaz, Floyd Armani, right? They're the three strands to his redemption if they have to be done, right? Gachi doesn't fit into that for me. Everybody loved to see that fight great, but it doesn't do anything for me. It doesn't move the need. Well, Dane definitely doesn't want it, you know? No, because the dangerous fight for Connor as well. Here's a guy who's, you know, he'll just go in there and go toe to toe and he'll flail away.

and something will happen. It might be like an upgraded Seroni because I don't know if Joseph Flynn could live with Connor at that level if Connor comes in there at that level. Khabib, I think, is a fascinating one because we need to run that back.

We need to see the proper Connor McGregor in there because we didn't the last time. To me, that fight hasn't even happened as such because it just, he was so far off what Connor McGregor can do, you know?

So for me, the sooner we see it, the better, regardless of how risky that might be, you know? And the other team, PT is, with a title on the line, that's going to bring the fans. That's going to bring the fans.

That's going to bring the atmosphere. That's going to bring that pop. That's going to bring absolutely everything. Forget the animosity. Hopefully they can control a little bit better this summer down. But that's just the scale of Connor back in a title match here in Las Vegas, in the O-Till. Wherever you want to put it on, that's going to be massive. Yeah, like I should say that as well.

I mean, it's not just all this outside the Cade stuff. I mean, it's just the fact he hasn't been fighting. He hasn't been winning. Like, that's going to take away from your momentum too, right? but is like as far as Jose Young's Casey Lloyd and Esther I believe were concerned they're like there's no doubt about it. Masvedal is the biggest fight to make now

and it suits him. It's in his wheelhouse. Hold on. What is George Masvedal done? Right? He knocked out Ben Askerr really, really quickly and he's had the odd half decent joke, right? Super necessary, that kind of thing. Well hang on, Darren Thiel knockout, Ben Asker knock out and then the BMF title against Nate Diaz. It's not bad. Well you know Nate was unfortunate because Nate wasn't really able

carry on there so he busted him up but i still don't get what the attraction is here right you know because horker was around for a long time you know and now you know he's coming about the best i look to him and that kind of thing but does that sort of propel him straight into a welterweight fight with one of the greats i i don't get it you know and and he's seen really really desperate you know like yeah uncharacteristically little this is now i didn't see enough of it but that that is the the kind of summary i'm getting from the people who are watching and that's not like malzvedal and like that's why serroney didn't get a fight for a long time time because he was being too complimentary and too nice and oh you know give me the money give me the money

now eventually he got it but you know i don't see what masvedal brings to the table i don't think it'd be a great fight again i think if connor was in good condition if he was in top condition i don't think masvedal could live with him really you know so you know not the way he fought last night i think you'd be showing up you know Connor's not going to make the kind of mistake that ben asker made was going here knee me in the head let's get this over and done with kind of thing you know so you know i just don't really say and again they have no history there's no beef there's no reason to fight masvedal whatsoever when you could fight native welterweight or lightweight you can fight kabib and you can fight mani pacchio for

you know i don't know a bazillion dollars here i like the masbidal fight now i i i feel like the style matchup is is ridiculous but it's one of those things where you know it's two guys fighting within their wheelhouse and both both are excellent strikers yeah yeah but if you want to make that fight right there's a ufc game on the playstation be my guest right go ahead and do it because i'm trying to look at the bigger picture here right because connor's 31 years of age now right he's smart He's not going to take too much damage to the head. He's not going to fight that, and then he's going to make his money and get out.

How does he do that, and how does he still serve all those storylines? How does he tie off all those storylines one by one. How he does it is not by fighting Gaecie, and it's not by fighting Maswadal, because you're opening up a whole new book there. If he loses to one of them, then he has to give it again. Maybe he has to give them a rematch

because they'll demand that in the contract or that kind of thing, right? Why would you open up another chapter when you haven't written the end of the three chapters that are already there? Yeah, okay, I understand. You're kind of saying, like, you need to seal off your legacy here in the correct manner. Is that right? I think so. I think this is the way Connor sees things. He talks about the power of attraction.

He talks about narrative, narrative, narrative the whole time, right? He's... Mad narratives. Yeah, I'm mad for the narratives. And you're mad from MMA fighting is pushing all these weird shit as well, you know. But the thing is, I think that he wants to see everything like a film. We saw about the notorious documentary. That would have been one film, a completely different film, if the Mayweather fight hadn't happened. So if you watched it, you know, you could see that it was probably half done by the time the Mayweather fight came around. But then when it did come around, oh, we have to have the boxing in there as well, you know. I think Connor would like it nice and tidy.

He would like all of these things to be in a chapter of his book, how I got it back from Nate, how I finally beat Nate to get a two-one over him, how I got it back from Kabib, how I made my name in boxing, how I, you know, I went 12 rounds with Mani Pacchio, if that's what it takes, to establish him, you know, as a sort of a credible name in the boxing world. They're the things that Connor McGregor wants. Masvedal, incidental. It's going to give him a few million dollars, but there are plenty of other things that would do that as well.

Well, that's it. Yeah, all right. I wasn't thinking about that like that at all, Phil. You tend to do this to me quite a bit, but not... Usually in just general life, though. Pizzi, what the fuck are you doing? But, yeah, we've nearly walked a good bit of the south strip now at the moment. Where are we going this way?

Into Cristles? Or we go across the road and go to Noel's favorite restaurant, Fat Burger. He loves the place. Well, I think it's named after him. Oh, the abuse. The abuse. So, Roy, you've laid out a few options there. Which one would you love to see next?

Like which one do you feel is... I'll get on the other side, sorry? Which one do you think would be ideal? I think the next one is going to be either Tony or Khabib, if one of those doesn't make that fight. Imagine the spanner Tony throws in the mixer if he beats Kabeb.

I mean, that would be brilliant because, you know, then it opens it up because Connor was that title back. I think that's what occurred to him last night. The proof of the point, it wasn't just... He didn't just have to prove it to us last night. He had to prove it to himself.

And last night he got in there, he felt good, and he got his business done, Then he starts to think the lightweight title, I want that back. I don't think he cares. A fight against Tony is not like a fight against Masvidal. It does add something if Tony has the belt, right?

If Masvedal had a belt and that BMF belt, ah, get out of here, you know? That doesn't count, you know? It'd be a nice thing to have, but it's even an ugly belt, Conorner was saying, you know? But if Tony had that, go after it. Then you go after Kabib, then you go after Nate, then you go after Pacia or whoever Mayweather wants to put in there

so everybody can get the tails ringing again, you know? Wow. Yeah, all right, I accept your take. I don't quite know what I'm going to do with it. How have you found the week, though, in general? I love it here, PCA. You know, a lot of people don't expect me to, like, Las Vegas, I love it. It's just mad.

I mean, we're walking on the strip here. I think I got ADHD about two blocks ago from all the lights, and that kind of thing. But I love it. I love the fact that stuff is happening here all the time. Tyson Fury, Deonti Wilder's going to happen here. You know, there's always something going on in this town, and I love it. But most of all, I love to sort of meet up with the Beatles-like crew from MMAfighting.com, in which you are Ringo Star

let's face it. But there's so many people that you get to meet these big fights, the lads from submission radio, from all these other outlets as well. There's a great sense of camaraderie. It's a really enjoyable sport to work with them that way and to sit around or to walk around the streets

as we're doing at the moment and to talk about it and to tease these things out because we care about it so much and we enjoy it so much. That's just a privilege to be able to get paid as we're doing this. Yeah, it's very, very true. And I want to thank you for being not only in the show but for looking after me

every time I see it and getting your arm around me when I need one and drop me all these wonderful places that we've gone to this week. I can't thank you enough. You're a great friend of mine and I love you very much, Philip O'Connor. Any time, my friend. Anything for you, pal. Now, let's hear from Jose Young's, the Bachelor of Westmead, I believe, or the Westmead Bachelor, I believe Phil O'Connor has christened over this week. As we have said, Mad Beef with Noel McGrath and Jose Young's, it's not a situation that I'm all too fond of two of my homies and two of my aces, my co-hosts at each other's throats. I hope we can repair the damage. That's all I want to do. Increase the piece. We can't have this, you know, MMA fighting civil war of podcasts. I don't want anything to do with it.

So let's hear from what Jose Young has to say. And then we'll be back to round this bad boy out. I'm now joined by my ace side compatriot and fellow Irishman. Jose Youngs. And, you know, I felt Jose be a great man to tell me about how the U.S. feel about the return of McGregor. What does it mean for the UFC and all this kind of dancing? So, you know, is it a big result last night for the UFC, do you believe? Well, before we get into that, I just want to say it's really an honor to be on the Eurobatch. It feels good that you finally have like a true Irishman as your co-host, like not some muck savage from Kildare.

I don't know. What's his name? He's a bogger. A filthy bogger. But anyway, it's really an honor to finally have two Irish co-hosts on Eurobash. But to answer your question, leading up to this fight week, it clearly obviously wasn't as, what's the word split in terms of do we care if he's, do we care of Conner's back? Do we not care of Connors back? As it is in Ireland, obviously, from your fantastic piece where a lot of your fellow Irishmen, our fellow Irishman. Our fellow Irishman, weren't to didn't really care that he well not didn't not that they didn't care that as you said he had kind of lost the favor of his country

that is not the case in America I mean it was really kind of out of sight out of mind like they cared when he was fighting and they cared when he was in the headlines but if he was doing what he allegedly was doing

if it didn't affect the United States no one really cared no one really paid attention So the fact that he was back, I think a lot of American fans took notice, especially just looking at my own text messages. People were saying like, oh, Conner's back, Conner's back. Fantastic performance. Like he's back. Great, great, welcome back to the UFC. I'm like, this is the opposite of what P2 is telling me from the Irishman.

So it's, I think the U.S. really just view him as a charismatic fighter rather than a proud, nationalistic figure. Like, yeah, like you guys do. Yeah. And even for me, I think a lot of people. were saying this kind of stuff but when the fight night came around they were all watching it you know what i mean so it's but he did do a great job of kind of giving back to the Irish people and stuff like that but like from a paper view point of view having him back has got to be good right and having them back to winning ways with a bit of momentum now it's got to be good news for dana oi

i mean i think it's just good news for fight fans in general i think i know me personally i know a lot of people who only watched connor fights and they to this day like they'll be like oh what happens to that What happened to that Misha Tate girl that fought on the co-main event of the Nate Diaz, the first Nate Diaz, oh, what happened to Tyron Woodley who fought on that same card as Connor Eddie? So, like, they remember the fighters from the Connor fights. Connor will say a name, like Justin Gaichie, and they'll be like, oh, who's this is Justin Gaetia guy that Connor keeps talking about? So it's, I've experienced it firsthand, and whether I'm not, I don't really care for Connor's antics outside of the cage, but he's a phenomenal fighter. and I, from my personal point of view, you can't really argue that he doesn't bring eyeballs in.

So I also know a few people who got into the sport for Connor, specifically when he was doing his whole thing with Ido Portel. And they're like, who's this guy just stretching and doing movement and then going out there and sleeping someone in 13 seconds? Like, this guy rules. And then they realize they just love the sport of martial arts. And Connor leaves and they stick around. So in America, from my perspective, he definitely brought eyewball so it's good for the american audience does it even matter to them if he wins or loses really like i mean i know wins and losses aren't the same as they are in boxing but for

connor particularly like did it feel like you know there was as much on this fight as there was for the other ones like habib and stuff like that no i don't think i think wins and losses will matter if he strings together a lot of losses like if he strings together three or four losses in a row he will obviously lose uh the this the aura of his invincibility but what Similar to what Ireland, you were telling about the Irish, like he would say he's going to do this, and then he did it. And he would always go up against, like, in America, the Rocky movies, a lot of people don't watch combat sports,

and they associate boxing or just any combat sports with Rocky. So they see this guy coming to enemy territory, going flying to Brazil, calling out the greatest fare or whatever, and then knocking him on 13 seconds. Like, that's what they like to see, because they love these Rocky moments. When we, that are watching it, no. Yeah, he knocked out Aldo in 13 seconds,

but Connor's a phenomenal athlete. And they really did push this narrative of this, this Irishman who comes for this working family, trying to make a name for themselves. And as you know, Americans love Irish people, especially us Irish Americans, right? So it's, I think wins and losses wouldn't matter, but they also, like, I don't know a lot of people that, none of the people I spoke to thought he was going to be Floyd. A lot of people asked whether Habib would have, what he would beat Habib, but it was mostly like, oh, Connor's back after so long because he have a chance. And I would say, not really. And they believed me. So then, but when he lost, they didn't really.

care because it's they like Connor they don't a lot of them will like Connor but they're not quite there yet as like hardcore MMA fans yet so like obviously we know Masbadal had a huge year last year is one of the people that's being talked about like where is his stock compared to Connors is that anywhere near or is it apples and oranges it's uh it's just different different audiences I think Connor is a character uh he he's an exciting brash Irishman that ever not even just America, the whole world kind of took, was he captained the whole world. What Horry Mazzville does is he lives in the States. He's first generation Cuban American from Miami. So he speaks perfect Spanish and he speaks English, obviously. He can do, he can go on ESPN like right there in Miami. He can go to New York.

He can do all this. So American audience will see a lot more of Jorge Mazzu, they might when they fight, when he fights Connor, I'm sure they will tune in for Connor. But Jorge Mazzal is not a they're not familiar familiar with at this point because he's making the rounds in media not just USC like he's making the rounds in mainstream media yeah that's oh you see him on ESPN an awful lot like he was in he he stopped by like the vanity fair the vogue like he's just complex like since he lives in the states he can do he can go do these interviews and do these media spots that Connor can't just simply because he's there so uh you'll see horay a lot in the United States. You know, with Jorge and Conner, a lot of the Irish people felt as though, I saw

Sean Sheehan from Ireland, obviously, talking about, you know, Masvedal didn't really sell the fight that well last night. Like, he didn't do a good job of it? What do you think? Do you feel as though everybody's still talking about the possibility of that matchup? Do you think he took a step away from or a step closer to it last night? I mean, it's got to be a good thing for me if, if Conner's kind of mentioning him anyway, he's talking about him. But as far as they were concerned, he's did an interview he didn't put his best will forward so to speak and then Connor kind of verbally won that exchange you know it's it's hard to say simply because like we follow the sport so religiously because of our jobs that like we understand we know we've been following

horace for like 10 years like horay fighting for horrid horny fighting Connor five years ago would have been a fun fight just because of their styles and like their characters but like right now in 2020 I didn't understand him wearing the same robe that conge I thought that was weird. So you're with Conner in this one. You thought it was a bit strange. I thought it was very strange. Like Jorge has his own style.

He has his own flare. He street Jesus. And now he's copying another man. It just felt a little forced. You didn't need to sell the BMF title. Like Nate versus Jorge is like these two guys that don't talk trash. They just go out there and try and kill you. Connor sells fights with his mouth.

And then he obviously sells with his style in there. Jorge is. similar to a Diaz in that he is what you see is what you get like he does not put on a mask um i think their stylistic matchup would sell huge in america like just bloodshed like bmf this and that but i it's just i didn't see the broad the interview on on the broadcast but i it's hard to say whether he sold it or not simply because i like that fight even if i would like that fight five years ago no he doesn't need to sell me he needs to sell me he needs to sell to the American public.

So I don't know. No one's asked me for my casual MMA fans whether Jorge is going to fight Connor. That much is true. Who are they asking about? Just when is Connor returning? Not is he going to fight Jorge? Is he going to fight Camaro? Is he going to fight?

It's when's he going to fight next? Not who, when. Final question. Dana Hoyt believes that the most valuable fight in combat sports at the moment is the rematch between Habib and Connor. Do you agree with that do you think another fighter would make a bigger splash? It's Jorge.

Jorge versus Connor is the biggest fight they can make right now. I mean, it's exciting. It's not going to end violent. Like, I watched it in the Habib fight. I watched it in like Joe, like the commentary sold her. Like, oh, he's like, remember that rack? I can remember quite the round, but like the whole fight was standing. Habib never shot him for a takedown.

And people were like, oh, Connor, this is where he's going to come back. I ever watched that fight like a couple months ago. I'm like, Habib just kind of ran through him. It wasn't close at all. this fight would be a this fight would be a scrap like he's like horay is not going to go out there and get slept immediately uh this is really the new

the new harry mazvall of 2019 is he's going out there to put hit your off button as he said uh he just wants to fight bad dude so it's it's it's it's horay right now is like we looked at the numbers is dwarfing everyone on youtube like connor did the interviews and hori he is double

his numbers so uh horay right now is the biggest fight the u s you can make and I just think it's leverage. Dana, like, Conard, I know Connor and Jorge probably liked that fight because it's the highest money fight, but Dana is probably just using leverage for something else. I don't know, but I don't even want the second Connor Habit fight.

The lead-up was way too dark for me, and it wasn't competitive. I don't want to relive that again. Just, is there anything I can do? I hate to see two of my countrymen at loggerheads, and you and Noel, I mean, it got fishes. Do it, like, Noel McGrath? No.

from Calderer? Oh yeah. Yeah, the Calder guy. Yeah, he, like, you know, I want to see you guys as friends. Is there any way? Like, I mean, people might have saw the tweets, but they didn't see the vicious voicemails that went between you guys. And I mean...

Were they vicious? Or was it just me stating facts? Like, the sky is blue is not a vicious statement, is it? I mean, look, I don't want to get in between you guys, all right? Like, I love you both very much. And we need to stop this civil war. the MMA fighting podcast Civil War. The Irish media Civil War is what you're saying,

needs to be stopped. Well, here's what we can do. I'll meet him in Kildare, wherever that is. It sounds like a fictional place. Clearly not Dublin, am I right? It's probably the complete opposite. It's not West Meath. I don't think they have cars there, man.

It's not West Meath where my family hails from. It's like, I run the fields of Westmeath. Like streets, who needs them? Fields is where it's at. So if he wants to meet in Westmeath, I'll buy him some mescal from my mom's side of the family, some good Mexican liquor. And he can buy me whatever swill he wants to peddle my way in my field of Westmeath. That will be the beef squashed. We'll squash.

And it's not even beef. I'm just like, Nile, I'm sorry. Like, you're who, like, I'm sorry that you're you. Well, I'll say thank you so much for this. I'm sure Noel is going to love editing that interview. It's been a pleasure working with you guys. I'll see you very soon. Adios.

Thank you so much, Jose Youngs, and Philip O'Connor, of course. That rounds out the coverage from Las Vegas from this man. I am absolutely drained. I go home now, and I'm going on a few days' vacation with the lovely Elaine. to Amsterdam. I got that, that was a little Christmas present from Pedy here. But look at all the things we're talking about here.

This is great. This is the type of way we want to speak about, Connor O'Greger. So many options I play. The master of puppets when it comes to this game at times, you know? Certainly seems as though he's back on the straight, narrow performance like that, you know.

Although people are saying Soroni was a deer in the headlights, you know, Connor was electrifying while he was in there. I mean, comes out, imagine, like, throwing that massive left hand completely comes out there with bad intentions. Tried to destroy Saroni straight away and it didn't take them long to do it. And look at the creation as well. It was a creative display, the shoulders, the head kick and the accuracy on the bunch of delivered once the fight hit the ground. These are all really good things. And it was good to see everyone back together there as well.

Roddy and John and I even saw Atem there. He probably saw the interview on M.A. fighting and Dawesbrose. all those guys. You know, it's great. Great to see them all smiling, happy faces. You know, that kind of tells you that it's legit as well. I'd love to pick Ruddy's brain about, you know, Phil Sucliff, how they work together there. It's the new camp, you know, so much new faces in the camp.

But the most important one, McGregor, of course, is back to winning ways. And looking very, very good. Like, I mean, we were talking earlier about, like, Jorge Masvidal doing more numbers in terms of, you know, our channel over the week or whatever. But, like, after that fight, it's probably changed, right? Because now there's so many things that play. The next fight is going to be so meaningful for Connor, whatever way it goes. It's, um, whoever it is really, like, I mean, Nate Diaz, Jorge Mazvedal, Habib, you know, Mayweather. I don't really want that. I don't really want the boxing thing to happen, but I guess, you know, you can't blame the guy if he wants to make money.

You know, I'm not going to be turned down any $100 million paychecks anytime soon. But, yeah, like, I mean, Justin Gagee, a lot of people want to see, but that seems to be, like, Dana White kind of threw a lot of water on that one. But, look, these are the things that we want to be talking about when it comes to Connor. you know he is a truly great fighter and he reminded us all of that the uranite and um you know i love this dynamic now because because it's like oh just because he beats seroni it doesn't mean he's going to be habib and masvidal but this should be the terrain that suits him the most this is how he made his name shutting people's mouths and he's even got people like me down him now people like you know that they have been the the ones that have lifted him up the one that have lifted him up the

kind of writing these stories about him before anyone else we were always uh believing it win the only fight ever kind of predicted he'd lose was the habib one um but now masvada all the way you know so much hype habib having won the first fight you know it's it's like well if he goes in and stops me with these guys it's gonna go absolutely insane again uh it's gonna go mental Yeah, it's great to see him winning again. It's great to see him fighting so well again. This is what we've always wanted. So, you know, the redemption of Connor McGregor is well underway.

So that's all from me in Vegas. I'm just looking around my room here, making sure of everything backed into my bag. Phil O'Connor is coming up in his rented car to bring us to the airport now. He's like me, that, really, over here. I'd be lost without him. like maybe a big brother nearly he's like Luke on the road I'll be lost without the man I'll be lost without Casey and Esther and Jose this week as well

you know everybody looking out for me it's a great old bunch we have on Meteor and it's so much more friendly I feel now than it was when I first came into it everybody gets on with each other it's really cool it is it's really nice like you know it used to be really stressful if it when it felt like we were all out to get each other not out to get each other we always had friends in there but it was just, you know, it was probably because we're all trying to make our way up, you know.

But, um, great to see everybody. And I'm looking forward to the next one. Hopefully it will be Habib and Tony in April. And let us know what you thought of our coverage. And let me know what you thought of our Las Vegas special. I love his loads. M.