My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 267 - CONOR McGREGOR

Episode Date: March 14, 2023

Robbie finally gets a real interview with his white whale, Conor McGregor! McGregor sat down with Robbie following the semi-finals of The Ultimate Fighter and discussed how filming the show went, where his respect level for Michael Chandler is at, how he sees that fight going down, his proudest accomplishments, greatest rivals, and more! **************************************** Subscribe to My Mom's Basement on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeZ96PqdsJYQ7DFLRx6MHw My Mom's Basement Merchandise: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/my-moms-basement Intro Music: “Basement Noise” by All Time Low Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/basement-noise/1499013757?i=1499013968 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3Aq9W9BBCjsFOQqcYyO6IA?si=d9d0f74cf54a48deYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey, My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hello, and welcome to My Mom's Basement, presented by 3Chi and Barstool Sports. I am your host, Robbie Fox, and today I have a very, very special edition of the show for you. It is a 15-minute long interview with the notorious Conor McGregor. This is the white whale. If you've been following the podcast since the beginning, you know, I've said, how amazing would it be if we eventually got Conor on the podcast, right? Like a full sit down interview. I got a quick on the go interview with him in Abu Dhabi a little over two years ago. And while that was great, it was

just filmed on my phone while his kids were grabbing at it. And we were laughing. It was like two minutes long. It wasn't like an interview. It was like a quick interaction that we got on camera. This was a straight up interview. You could check it out on YouTube if you want to see the full video. But for all the podcast feed people, here is the audio of my interview with Conor McGregor. Enjoy. All right, welcome back to my mom's basement. It is Robbie Fox, and I am here with the one and only, the notorious, the champ champ, Conor McGregor. Conor, thanks for doing this. I appreciate it.

How are you? Good, my man. Thank you for having me in your mom's basement. Yeah, of course. Here's your mom's basement. Of course. So you're just wrapping up coaching the Ultimate Fighter. We heard going into this season,

you really wanted the immersion back into the sport. Did you feel like you got out of this experience what you wanted? For sure. It's almost a little bit over too soon so I want to continue it almost. I'm trying to formulate my camp now as I begin post-show preparations. So I got a great start here. We hit the ground running. I was immersed in the training with the lads myself. I was sparring as they were sparring. And we had some good work.

It was a good show. Great experience. Was it a similar experience to the last time you coached the Ultimate Fighter or very different? You know, I am. It was me. But, you know, it was just for sure different circumstances. The last one I was coming in off of a heavy world title fight at Camp Media and plus injuries and all the rest of it. And then I cut post-fight.

So I wasn't necessarily training myself for this one. But I was coaching as well. This one I did take a bit more hands-on approach, you know, and I also trained myself. So it was a bit different for sure. How much did the opponent matter for this, Michael Chandler? Did you care much about the opponent? Not so much. I brought in a very slick youth world champion freestyle wrestler. He's also

a mixed martial arts guy. So that was kind of my sparring partner as the training was going on. But he's actually more Southpaw based and as the shots were getting, we were trying to ask him to get into the orthodox and when you're cracking a guy in a stance they're not familiar with, they're going to move back to Southpaw. So I had some great training with the guy and with the lads as well. So I did a little bit of, I brought someone in somewhat similar, and I just carried on training. Again, it's about our own self. It's about your own self.

I said it many, many years ago. It's you versus you. So I'm just in that nice spot right now. And how do you see that fight going down between you and Chandler? Thanks, Phil. For Chandler, I'm just too slick for him. I'm too skilled for him.

And he's not fought someone like me. I've fought someone like him, though. Are you talking about Chad Mendes? Just in general. It's the mixed martial arts

style, right? The short wrestler? The short wrestler. It's just kind of MMA, isn't it? Throughout the years. So it's not like nothing peculiar or unsure of.

I've fought against that stuff many, many years. And Michael obviously was with a smaller promotion, and then he worked his way up. He's had some excellent fights, and he's earned his right to be in this position. But it'll be my job now on Fight Night to show the levels and show there is a much higher difference in skill level here, and that's that's it. I'm excited to get going. It's a nice bout for me and

What do I hope for in this world Robbie? I hope for a hundred fights. I hope for a hundred more fights I hope for consistency. I'm working for consistency. I've been getting this on off on off nonsense for too long. It's via Fight politics via injuries via just life. You know, it does happen. I'm not, you know, it's God's plan. It's all God, so I accept and understand it. But I'm just, I'm excited and hopeful that I can get a nice consecutive run of bouts.

I've got a lot of exciting fights. I've got some rivalries. I've got, you know, you've got guys on the climb. You've got guys that potentially, you know, the divisions that are, you know, you've got guys on the climb. You've got guys that potentially, you know, the divisions that are, you know, supposed to be the best this and that in the division that I was, you know, there's loads of bouts I can have and I'm excited for every single one of them. And that's it. Please, God, we make it happen. Yeah. It seemed like you went into this camp with, well, not camp, but show. Absolutely. With respect for Chand Chandler it is St. Patrick's week it is

it is St. Patrick's week happy St. Patrick's that's it that's it yeah gotta do it with Robert Klaus that's it my man are you leaving

the Ultimate Fighter experience with respect for Chandler still ah I had respect for Chandler yeah you know we had an issue right obviously tempers are flaring

yep it's a fucking it's a hostile thing right yeah there's nothing respect and admiration. I like his style, he likes my style, we have a good little buzz. That's the way it should be.

There's still competitive fire. I'm still going to mince him. I know he's going to try and throw everything into his shots also. But there's still admiration. That's how it should be. That's how the sport should be. You should have the ability to separate it. And that's what's such a great thing about this sport. Usually when

you get in there and you do it, it's a settler, you know. So we had an issue once during it and it was all good. It was just, you know, tempers were flared and we got past it. And I'm excited. I'm excited to have completed competition against him in the show and I'm excited to compete against him now for real. Absolutely. Proper 12. This is the Irish apple here. This is the Irish apple, man.

It's doing very, very, very, very well. Cheers. People are loving it. You know, the flagship, the May, that's the smoothest four-year aged Irish. Liquid gold. On the market by far. Liquid gold. Now we are innovating with the product.

We've infused it with Irish apple. It's our first innovation. Oh, it smells so good. Of the product and our first of many. If that's a four year age, we will do it more aged. I will experiment with the liquid in different barrels. So there's a lot more coming, but the apple's doing well and then the flagship is leading the way. I love it. Cheers to that, man.

Cheers. Cheers to Prop R12. Absolutely. Oh, that's smooth. That's real smooth. It's as fresh as a glass of apple juice in the morning. It is. Is what it is, yeah.

So, talking about the recovery off the leg break, not only physically but mentally, was that really difficult for you to go through? Yeah, very tough times, you know. Very tough times, very unsure times. And you not only got to look at Chris Weidman, who recently returned to competition for his jiu-jitsu competition. Very happy for Chris. Very happy to see that. Because it's a tough one. There's no two ways about it.

I'm blessed I had the correct care and attention to it medically. I had the best doctors, best surgeons. Thank you to UFC. Thank you to UFC. Thank you to Dr. Neil Eletrasch. All the team who worked on me. I got it back, thank God. And I'm back better than ever.

You know, so I'm excited. The bionic knee now. The bionic leg. I'm dropping guys with the back shot. Yeah. I'm dropping them all over.

Yeah. I love to hear that. And you also are dipping your toes in the acting game now. Roadhouse coming out. What did you think of your co-star

Jake Gyllenhaal as a UFC bout? Yeah, I thought he was- Took over the internet, right? Took over the internet, yeah, but I thought the shots, the shots were pretty good. Yeah. Because we'd worked with him to get the shots correct. I wanted the shots, not like technically

mixed martial arts, I didn't want that. Okay, wait a minute. Yeah, yeah, we'll have one of our, we'll have one, have you got two glasses? We got two glasses. One, yes. Now we're working the fourth still? Absolutely, hey, when in Vegas, hey,. We'll have one at Wacken. Have you got two glasses? We've got two glasses. Come on, yes. Have a Wacken at Fort Stout? Absolutely.

Hey, one in Vegas. Hey, one in Vegas. One in Mom's basement. One in Mom's basement. Yeah. Yeah. What was I saying there? About Gyllenhaal.

About training him. He's a great guy. He's a great, great guy. He was very patient with me, and I was patient with him. We understood our skill set and what we brought to the table. And a dear friend of mine now, Jake Gyllenhaal is, and we've done a great movie.

You know, Sean Bint Hall is my fourth one, so I don't really know how I've done. You know, I've done the best I could with what I had at my disposal, if you get me. Yeah.

Did you enjoy the process? I did enjoy the process. It was very tough. I'll tell you what I enjoyed most of the process, the fact that now everything else seems easy. Really? Yeah, because 15 hour days, just give us a hand please.

15 hour days, 15 hour days on set. Memorizing lines too? Memorizing, so you're 15 hours on set, but you're not, you're memorizing the lines and you're practicing before you even go on set. So it's a lot of hard work. Yeah. And you know, I was doing my own stunts. I didn't want to do, I didn't want. All your own stunts.

I did all my own stunts. I didn't want, I didn't want. I might be a vain motherfucker, yeah, because I just don't, I saw the stunt double guys, I was like, that motherfucker doesn't look like me. I'll tell you, they were nice guys, very nice people, but I was just like, I don't know, I just couldn't, I couldn't let them do anything because I just didn't want them. It was me, you know.

But I don't know, it was tough. But leaving it, this, doing this show, going to training camp, preparing for fights, you know, even shooting all the content for all of these, you know, all the companies and all. Everything just feels so much easier. Yeah? Yeah. Can you see yourself diving back into the film game? I mean, they have something.

That's funny. Get me back in. Let me see how the first one goes. Let me see how the first one goes. I'm teed up that I can come back in. What do we got here? This is Forge Irish Stout, my man. The number one stout in Ireland.

So this is my stout I've created. Obviously, I opened the Black Forge Inn pub. Yep. It was my local. I bought the local. I renovated it. And we created a stout for the locals. I love it.

So that's how this came about. So I had no plans to make it into a company or a business. I just wanted a good, lovely stout for the local people. And a house stout. Yeah. It goes in. Day one, we open it. I get a pint.

Orders a pint. I'll pour you one right now. I orders a pint. Doesn't it actually blow me away? Really? So I'm sitting there and I'm just drinking. I'm like, this is too fucking nice. It's actually, I was like straight away. Are you typically a beer guy?

No, I do like beer. This is stout. This is stout, I was like straight away. Are you typically a beer guy? No, I do like beer. This is stout. This is stout. This is stout, I'm sorry. But I do like, um. Oh, nice can. A can design is money. You got to look at the competitors, right?

We got the forger, which is the black forge. It's the guy forging with the hammer. He's also wrapped around the F with the Claymore sword. The Claymore sword is the McGregor family sword. I love it. You got the Claymore sword dug into the ground around the forge, the forge symbol. sword is the McGregor family sword. I love it. So you've got the Claymore sword dug into the ground around the forged symbol. This is the McGregor family sword

we fought off the English invaders back in the Scottish Highlands back in the day. It's our family sword, the Claymore. So I wanted to implement this in the can. And then you've got it there. It's obviously nitro stout. So it's nitrogenated stout liquid in the cans. I invested in a nitro stout canning line in nitrogenated stout liquid in the cans. I invested in a nitro stout canning

line in my brewery. So we build that and then this is, it's smooth, it's a smooth pour. Yeah, I put the claymore through it. That's also ancient Irish writing in the store which is Oran. Oh, I love it. So it says MacGregor in Oran. And that's it man, that's a force to be reckoned with right now. We've got the competition. My competition, their logo is a harp. A little old granny. The old ladies play the harp. We've got weapons of war.

So you've got to ask yourself, what do you want? A little granny instrument? Or do you want a fucking weapon of war? We're slicing the strings off those fucking harps. Listen to the sound of this. Listen to the sound. Oh, yeah. Did you hear that?

Oh, yeah. Hit the sound of this one. And the mic. Oh, yeah. Did you hear that? Oh, yeah. Hit the sound of this one. And the mic. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. I mean, I'm sorry. Apologies to the UFC. Get the glass.

Get the glass. Go, go, go. Get the glass. Now, a little tilt. Little tilt. Hmm? Hmm? More, more, more.

Pour it out faster. Pour it out faster. The faster you pour, the better. Oh, okay, okay, okay. So fast open, fast pour. But tilt, tilt, tilt. Boom, like that? Yeah, yeah.

Let it sit. Let it sit. I got to admit, bad pour. No, it's not bad. That was, fast pour. But tilt, tilt, tilt. Boom, like that? Yeah. Let us see. I got to admit, bad pour. No, it's not bad. That was a bad pour. Hey, great things take time, Robbie. So watch. This is called the avalanche, right? So watch. Look.

It's like. That will rise up. Oh, that's nice looking. That will rise up. That's my pants. I got it all over the pants now. Yeah. For a pour from a can, it's quite impressive.

All right. Thank you. I appreciate you being nice about it. Yeah. Give it time, though. Give it power from a can, it's quite impressive. All right, thank you. I appreciate you being nice about it. Yeah. Give it time, though.

Give it time. Give it time. Have another little play with it. So you spoke about having great rivals before. When it's all said and done, who do you think is going to go down as your biggest and best rival? I'm already into a trilogy, a potential quadrilogy. I've also got another trilogy with Nate.

You know, I've got some good competitors, good rivals for sure. I'm not sure whoever's willing to, you know, they say it's whoever's left. You know what I'm saying? So whoever's left is what I would say. Do you have one accomplishment right now that you feel the most pride in over your whole career? It doesn't even have to be UFC. I'm family. They're my babies.

The products are my babies, the Forged Out and the Pro Barabo. My biggest accomplishment is I'm a father of three beautiful children. I've got my two boys. I've got my daughter. That's my main accomplishment. And that's what makes me strive to continue. I do everything for my family. And that's it.

I'm a family-orientated man. I love seeing all the pictures for the birthday parties and everything. You dressed as Batman. I see you even in Star Wars costumes sometimes. I feel like this is my mom's basement, you know. Connor's got a nerdy side to him. I play with it. Yeah. That's not bad. You know? Connor's got a nerdy side to him. I play with it. Yeah.

That's not bad. You know, the head is a little bit big. I probably, I'm still figuring it out myself. I know the liquid inside of it is tasty and delicious and incredible. And I know it's nitrogenated stout. I know it's just, it's the power of the glass for me. You know, you'd want that. You'd want it a little bit higher.

But a creamy head is not bad either. A creamy head is not bad either. A creamy head is not bad either. It looks good, creamy head. As far as quality of the liquid and the texture, it's as good as from a pub. It's like you're pulling this from the Black Forge Inn. The head on is a little bit, but that's the part. I'm going to make it out to the Black Forge Inn. That's my next stop.

I've never been to Ireland. Come on, man. Let me know. I'll set you up, brother. I'll set you up,. I've never been to Ireland. Yeah, come on, man. Let me know. Let me know. I'll set you up, brother. I'll set you up, no problem. That would be great. Right, we'll do a nice little chug,

and I'll get it down to the bottom level. Cheers to end it, yeah. Below the level. Oh, my goodness. All right. Straight away. Just go. Just tuck in.

I didn't get below the label, if we're being honest. No, you got to it. You got to it. I got to it. Cream. Cheers. Cream on my cheers.

All right, Connor. Thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate it after all these years. Top man. And obviously, War Connor. Are we ordering pizza to Mom's basement? Hell yeah. Stick on the PS5.