As ever this was a weekend of intense sporting achievement. Over 90,000 fans in Ireland turned out to watch the Leinster Football and Munster Hurling Finals on Sunday but few will have been as stunned by sport as those who either travelled to las vegas or tuned into Setanta Sports in the (not so) early hours of Sunday morning to watch Conor McGregor.
For many sports fans the seemingly endless hype and braggadocio displayed over the past six months were enough to make this one alarm clock that could be hit to snooze and rolled over.
That would have been a mistake. This really was something special.
I was one of those who was not sure about UFC. Without conceding to age in any other aspect of life this was one that I had down as being something that appealed to a younger age group and one that was a mere lightweight copy of the sport of boxing that has held so many more in thrall down the years.
That was my mistake.
The staggering bloody violence of the Lawlor McDonald fight that preceded McGregor’s bout with Chad Mendes suggested that we could only be looking at anti-climax for the self styled ‘Notorious’.
Then the full juggernaut of promotional excess notched up another gear. A single green spotlight picked out Sinead O’Connor as she opened up a haunting rendition of the Foggy Dew.
The stadium commentator caught the moment saying “This fight is not just about Conor McGregor. This fight is about Ireland. We’ve never seen anything like this.”
From the start McGregor came out spinning and kicking but this was another level to that which he had faced and for most of the next seven and a half minutes he was pinned to the floor being pummelled by the sharp elbows of his opponent.
Blood was spilled and it seemed the Notorious bandwagon was about to be derailed. But underneath the rain of blows he seemed to be holding up and when, with the bell for the end of round two coming close he sprung a one-two of punches Mendes crumbled and the night belonged to the 10,000 Irish who had packed the MGM Grand.
At first sight it seemed almost too easy. Thoughts of old style wrestling put downs which had been pre-arranged sprang to mind but in these days of super slo-mo it was not long before we saw in graphic detail that no-one was going tho get up from those blows.
This was extreme in every sense. There are some who will argue that combat sport with the sole intent of causing physical damage has no place in the lexicon of sport.
But it has always been there and we cannot laud the likes of Katie Taylor and Mohammed Ali without recognising that McGregor and UFC have now earned the right to be treated with the utmost respect.
It looks like the McGregor Aldo fight will take place in Las Vegas on January 2nd. All of a sudden that is less about hype and more about anticipation. Then who knows, Croke Park in the Summer? 90,000 fans to watch blood and thunder in the Octagon. Stranger things have happened.
