In the best selling book Outliers: The Story of Success, Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell, examined the factors that contribute to an extraordinarily high level of success. If you look at The Beatles, or Bill Gates you imagine that they had innate talent far exceeding that of a “normal” person.

However, Gladwell breaks down their past, and determined that rather than emerging with astonishing talent, the individuals were possessed instead with extraordinary drive to practice. Gladwell popularized the “10,000-Hour Rule.” This is the claim that the key to achieving world-class expertise in any skill, is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing the correct way, for a total of around 10,000 hours.

The take away is that if you want to be one of hour heroes, practice for five hours a day, hard, every day, for five or six years. Then you, too, can be a hero.

Conor McGregor recently appeared in a powerful mini-documentary by ESPN’s SportsCenter and offered a similar sentiment about himself.

“There’s no talent here, this is hard work,” said McGregor. “This is an obsession. Talent does not exist, we are all equals as human beings. You could be anyone if you put in the time. You will reach the top, and that’s that. I am not talented, I am obsessed.”

ESPN also made McGregor the Fight of the Year for 2016.

Two years ago, McGregor was viewed by many as a talking head, with a powerful but limited skill set that the UFC would need to protect in terms of matchmaking. Today, he is viewed by many as a pound-for-pound best, with a knockout finish against one of the greatest fighters of his era, and a legitimate threat to become only the third man to ever win UFC titles in multiple weight classes.

“At 27 years of age, I stand here as the unified world champion,” said McGregor, following UFC 194. “Back-to-back gate records at the MGM. This is trending as the highest pay-per-view of all time for UFC. I’m 27 years of age with every record in the book.”