You can argue that there may be a stark contrast between the “champ-champ” Conor McGregor of 2016 and the Conor McGregor post-Floyd Mayweather fight. Many are seeing an obviously less active, but possibly less-driven version “The Notorious.”
While he is still regarded as a UFC elite in many respects, reigning welterweight champion Kamaru Usman doesn’t see it that way anymore. As “The Nigerian Nightmare” stated in a recent conversation with ESPN, he won’t shy away from a fight against the Irish superstar.
However, his level of respect for McGregor the fighter has dwindled.
Loudmouth. Just a loudmouth. He does more talking now than he does fighting.
He’s a guy that can compete, but he’s not the champion Conor McGregor. He’s not the double-champion. He’s not that guy anymore. He’s just a guy that’s in the UFC that if he wasn’t Conor, if he hasn’t done the things that he’s done, he would just be a regular fighter.
It’s probably the level of respect that he gets now is just he’s a regular fighter with a lot of money and a lot of hype and recognition.
But the old Conor, the hungry Conor that was the fighter that fighters respected. Now? Not that we don’t respect him at all. He’s still a UFC fighter, but he’s just a regular fighter.
McGregor aims to avenge his January TKO loss to Dustin Poirier as they meet for the third time at UFC 264 on July 10th in Las Vegas.
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