Irish fighter Conor McGregor may be on the sidelines nursing an injured knee after having major surgery just a few weeks back, but that doesn't mean he's not paying attention to his name being uttered by just about every featherweight on the planet.
As charismatic as he is controversial, McGregor has never shied away from namedropping a numbers of the world's top 145-pound fighters, and even dabbles in the desecration of a few lightweights as well if the mood strikes him.
It doesn't help matters much when McGregor plays a word association game with the top ten fighters in the division and uses words like "old" and "boring" while telling most of the 145-pounders that bantamweight would be a better place to reside.
So naturally responses are going to come in various interviews, but through it all McGregor knows one thing—they are all listening to every word he says about them and his plan to conquer the division is well under way.
"If I was an octopus, I'd slap every one of them in the face at the same time," McGregor told FOX Sports. "I'm emotionless to it, whether it's good or bad. I know every one of them is in trouble and they know it, too. I just keep doing my thing. I'm intelligent, I'm a smart martial artist. You're not going to outsmart me, you're not going to out think me. I'm confident I can take anyone in the division so I'm just going to keep doing my thing.
"I'm going to keep pumping fear into them, keep putting doubt in their minds."
One particular featherweight that got a rise out of McGregor's comments was top ten ranked featherweight Nik Lentz, who fired back at the Irish fighter recently. In case you were curious, he was the fighter McGregor referred to as 'boring' during his word association game.
Lentz ended up on a tirade about McGregor, knocking his two fights in the UFC and the fragile knee that shattered when he tried to plant his foot for a punch in his last bout against Max Holloway.
In his response, McGregor actually applauds Lentz for finally doing something that people will pay attention to him for because it's certainly not happening when he fights in the Octagon.
"I'm in their mind. A perfect example would be Nik Lentz," McGregor said. "The guy's signed three years and not a whisper. He mentions my name in an interview and now all of a sudden people are talking about him. I'm happy for the guy. He's finally done something. 'Cause before he ain't done jack sh-t."
McGregor says the same about virtually every fighter that's come after him since arriving in the UFC and that includes former Ultimate Fighter winner Diego Sanchez. McGregor and Sanchez ended up in a bit of a Twitter battle a few weeks back, and prior to his injury the Irish featherweight was actually asking the UFC to match them up for a fight in Manchester, England as part of the UFC Fight Night: Machida vs. Munoz card.
"The Diego Brandao and Diego Sanchez thing was funny. It's funny how it escalated," McGregor said. "Sanchez started before my fight, he started tweeting about this, and tweeting about that, the week of the fight, the day of the fight, all this s—t, about 50 tweets. For a guy that's lost his step, in my eyes he's lost his step and for him to open his mouth about that, he should just keep his mouth shut. But again, I'm emotionless to it."
McGregor admits this is nothing new in his life, and maybe his outspoken nature is just a defense mechanism to the reactions he's received all his life. He's been attacked at will ever since he was a kid growing up in Ireland, but he refuses to ever be a victim.
Instead he's the one launching the offensive attack and just sitting back and watching the shrapnel fly.
"I just always had that thing. Even when I was growing up, people just want to come at me, people want to hate me for some reason," McGregor explained. "I don't know what it is, but that is why I spend countless hours working my defense and now I'm untouchable. You're not going to hit me. If I don't want to be hit, you're not going to hit me. I'm defensively smart, and nothing phases me."
Whether it's Lentz, Sanchez or even UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo who mentions McGregor's name, it doesn't much matter to the brash, young Irishman. He believes he's injected new life into an otherwise dull division, and once he recovers from his injured knee the entire weight class is on notice that he's coming for each and every one of them.
In McGregor's mind, the title is coming home to Dublin--it's just a matter of when and not if.
"In my eyes, there's no one else. It's my division," McGregor said. "I'm the one bringing the hype. The current champ brings hype, the rest of them don't. Maybe one or two others, but the rest of the division don't.
"Even with this injury, you're going to see a record-setting return. I'm going to make it look easy and get right back where I started. Right back where I left off."
