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Conor McGregor: I'm going to get rich and then get out of fighting
For all his arrogance and boasting, UFC featherweight star Conor McGregor is still quite sane and smart. As such, he knows that he can't fight forever, and that the spotlight won't always shine as bright as it has the past couple years for the Irishman.
"I am not stupid. I am a very bright guy," he recently told the UK's version of GQ Magazine.
"I know that in the fighting game, you get people who get brain damage and do themselves long-term harm."
McGregor, who had a teammate's health problems turn him away from the sport two short years ago, plans to do as much damage as he can, absorb as little as possible, and then get out of the hurting business. He may not have a post-fighting career plan fully developed quite yet, but McGregor intends to walk into the sunset with plenty of cash in the bank to secure his financial future.
"I am into it in a big way, and I am good at it," he said of MMA and fighting in the UFC.
"I am going to get very, very rich and then I will get out and we will see what comes after that."
What comes next, of course, is a long-awaited 145-pound showdown with the UFC's longest-reigning world champion -- Jose Aldo -- on Dec. 12. Aldo was set to defend his belt against McGregor in July before rib injuries forced him out of the fight.
McGregor still fought, though he says a leg was badly injured, and came from behind to beat Chad Mendes. In his mind, however, McGregor beat both Mendes and Aldo that night in Las Vegas.
"What are you talking about? I have beaten him already," he claimed.
"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."
Just as he fancies himself a master observer of human movement, the brash 27-year-old also believes he can read opponents' emotions like a book. Though Aldo has never once in a fight shown an inch of backwards movement, McGregor is certain that he's in the champ's mind.
"I can hear it in his voice, I can see it in his eyes," he concluded.
"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."
