you know i heard a quote one time from vincent van gaal that really rang true he said
he has dedicated his life to his art and he has lost his mind in the process when i sit and i
thought about that it sounded very familiar i have given every single thing every ounce of my life to
this craft to perfecting my craft and i continue to do so and in the process i have lost my mind
to regular society to people who wake up at 9 00 am who clock out at 5 pm
they would look at me and say i've lost my mind but me i have found it almost
my name is conor mcgregor i'm a professional mma fighter my dream is to be more lightweight
champion in the ufc have more money than i know what to do with and have a great life for my my
kids my grandkids everyone in my family everyone that's that's come up with me that's my dream my
dream is to be number one most young men boy they got into martial arts was to defend themselves
i started off really being into football that's what my first dreams were you know being a
football player how good you were playing football like how good you were i fight you know there were
two things where i grew up and then maybe as i started going outside my little estate and all
conflict started happening i mean i had to kind of think to myself i need to be able to
defend myself now as well not even to get back on anyone around just to kind of be like all right
this guy knows where he's at just leave him alone no that's it i don't know i don't know
i'm obsessed i i was working in the plumbing business at the time here but um it was
it would have been around that time that john and nasi i left the plumbing business
how bad was that diploma yeah horrendous it was just a horrible horrible time and i was like you
know what i don't want to do this and then i just left and then i just stopped going didn't
get out of bed get me down and try and paint me out of bed and we have fights and literally
for a good world i never spoke i didn't really speak to my daddy who just kind of stayed away
from each other anytime anytime i come across me that i just anytime we did speak was fun why did
he get to that point to where he was because i was dealing i was doing absolutely nothing i was
getting into trouble yeah basically felt like i was doing full call i was a waste after you
know i was a waster got that called that a lot you know the real stress and the real fights
come from the mortgage come from this stress of home a lot of people are getting evicted from
their homes around here so that's something that i grew up with that was a big stress in my family
it caused a lot of stress so i just wanted to give it back and help out with just the uranus
my mother and father is still young now they nearly have their feet up they can relax they can
they are in a new place so it's good that's that's something i always dreamed of i always
i always visualize what giving would feel like given to people who have given to me
what that would feel like i always dreamed of just showing up one day and be like here
i always visualized good things i always visualize victory success abundance
i visualized it all and it's all happening if you have a clear picture in your head if something
is going to happen a clear belief in that it will happen no matter what then no nothing can stop it
you know it is destined to happen and that that's what that's what happens you know i mean it's it's
perfect i'm fighting myself normally because you are fighting yourself there is no there is
no opponent or any realist it's you versus you one i'd say i'll find myself in there i'm gonna be i'm
gonna beat myself not even martial arts life you know i mean it's always you versus you you compete
if you're competing against other people you know competing against others and you're gonna become
bitter eventually you'll become better but if you compete against yourself you'll become better
there are no restrictions there are no limits there's no one trying to get something from me are
trying to make me do this or make me do that or send me here i send me there or stop me from going
full i'm free like i'm gonna do as i please this is my time now so it's a beautiful
experience and it's almost an out of body experience and it becomes very very addictive
so that's what you're seeing here i'm i'm addicted to that feeling and i will do anything to get in
there and get that feeling again i truly believe we are all equal as human beings if we are
obsessed with something and we truly pursue our passion with everything we have regardless of any
anything else if you are obsessed work hard put in the time you will succeed and and that is a
philosophy that i carry my coaches carry in and to see lebron james who's like a mega uh
superstar over here and a phenomenal phenomenal athlete share um that belief is is
inspiring right back to me it shows that we are thinking correct you know this is
this is hard work this is an obsession nothing can be hard work if you're doing something and you're
not interested or you know passion for it you you really you should truly follow your passion
i'm not doing this for this i'm not doing this for fake acting and pretending i can you know i mean
trying to give emotion to some guy that wants a motion from me for a shot i can't do that i
don't do this for that but i understand that it's a double-edged sword and you must do that i do it
for the competition step foot inside that octagon i have that feeling of freedom so that is why i
say i don't feel pressure in there i do not i feel free in there no no there is no excuse i mean it's
i like i've been beat before you know i mean i've lost mma fights i've lost boxing fights i've lost
so many fights in the gym you know i lose all the time you know myself it is what it is if you
any true martial artist will know in order to succeed at this game you must lose and you must
lose many times you know what i mean so it is what it is we all have our we are we all have the same
emotions we have all one and we have all lost it's a sport it is what it is you know just get on with
it look to learn look to learn from you know the day you stop trying to learn is the day you start
losing you're learning so i'm always going to learn regardless of what regardless of the result
and i mean when all those i will take something from it off and you know you know the way people
say you learn you learn more from your losses and that that is true you learn a lot from your
losses but as well as that you learn from your wins people people can say let's say you let's
say you beat a guy and you're at the beat in that guy you're a winner now and i mean you're a winner
so now i now i get to take the foot off the pedal i don't need to learn so much i might have beaten
this guy i'm a winner you know what i mean that's going to stop you that can duck and that can take
over people especially in this game in in the when you're assigned to the ufc and there's all
media things going on and there's people looking for pictures and that can take over that can make
you feel like you're bigger than you are you know i mean that happens to guys you ever see guys that
i i see guys all the time coming in that around this company since day one their performances just
stay the same they stagnate their performances stagnate then they get even worse you know they
they they arrive for the fight our shape not looking in shape barely made way sluggish and
that's not going to be me i stay ready i'm always in shape you know you're not going to
catch me out of shape win our lives i'm going to be ready to go um no ego you know you can't have
an ego in this game we've all won we've all lost it is what it is just keep going keep doing it
keep working hard i'm a cocky [ __ ] but if you come in you get me if you come in and you get me
i'll stand before you and stand before everyone say you got me i'll get you next time and i
see every human being everyone in here at some stage we face laws we've all lost something you
know we all know how how a loser on the knife feels because we have all lost at one point
in our lives you need to start pointing your hand down everyone's handed out everyone's think
everyone wants things for free or everyone you know i'm saying you've got to put in the walk
you've got the grinds you've got the you've got to go through the struggle and you've got to get
it if you deserve it go get it you know don't complain don't cry get the move and go get it
you