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Notorious

McGregor: 'There's never been another man in this position in this sport'

Conor McGregor talks retirement, superstardom and Jose Aldo.

CONOR McGREGOR IS currently in Las Vegas for the 22nd season of The Ultimate Fighter, in which he’ll feature as the coach of a team of European lightweights against their US counterparts, who’ll be under the guidance of fellow UFC star Urijah Faber.

Filming is now reaching its closing stages and the show will premiere in Ireland at 4am on the morning of Thursday, 10 September on BT Sport 2.

Chris Maathuis is a reporter with KLAS-TV in Vegas and he caught up with McGregor at the TUF gym to cover a range of topics, including the interim featherweight champion’s rapid rise to success, his plans for retirement and his eagerly-anticipated fight against Jose Aldo, which is set to take place at UFC 194 on 12 December.

“This story has never been told before. There’s never been another man in this position even in this sport. Before me, no one [from Ireland] had registered a win inside the octagon, let alone headline events, let alone win world titles.

“There’s not a day I wake up and do not pinch myself, and be grateful for everything in my life. I knew everything would happen. You always hear, ‘I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it’, but I could believe it and I did believe it. That’s why it happened,” McGregor said.

Chris Maathuis / YouTube

The reporter also bizarrely claimed that McGregor’s fans call him “the Celtic [with a soft 'C'] Tiger” and “the Irish [Muhammad] Ali. They even say the UFC stands for United For Conor” — which were all new ones for us.

As for Jose Aldo, who withdrew from their scheduled bout last month due to injury, McGregor said: “He went running, now he claims he’s back. We’ll see. I’ll be there, like I was there on 11 July.”

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