UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has become only the third MMA fighter to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated, after Roger Huerta and Ronda Rousey.
After the congratulations, the next question of course is will McGregor succumb to the Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx – which holds that an athlete loses his or her next competition after appearing on the cover, or worse.
Roger Huerta was the first UFC fighter on the cover of Sports Illustrated, in 2007.
Huerta won eight in a row before the cover. He has gone 5-7 since.
Another MMA fighter did not appear on the cover until Ronda Rousey just last year.
We know how that went. And she appeared again, as one of three models on the cover the SI Swimsuit issue.
And that brings us to Conor McGregor.
He has the luck of the Irish. Irish who work obsessively at their craft for many long, hard hard years. So maybe he spun the jinx, and it landed on RDA’s foot.
Elias Cepeda has more for FOX Sports.
In the cover story, McGregor talks about reaching the top of MMA so quickly despite a humble start. “I just figured out that if I gave my all into this game — if I put everything into the fight business — then I would eventually run the fight business,” he said.
“That’s where we are right now.”
McGregor is in the midst of a roller-coaster week as his March 5 lightweight title challenge against champion Rafael dos Anjos was called off Tuesday after the Brazilian announced he’d broken a foot. That delay likely won’t stall McGregor’s star during it’s ascent, however.
The fight fiend Irishman discussed what got him into martial arts and how it became addictive to him. “I just wanted to be able to be comfortable and confident if someone said something to me or something happened: strike hard, strike fast, make my exit safely,” he remembered.
McGregor had plenty to say about dos Anjos in the story. Despite the lightweight champion’s recent dominance, McGregor feels that he’s too much of a ring general to allow dos Anjos to bully him in the cage.
“In reality it will be a one-minute demolition job,” he predicted.
“I’m going to press him. Many people don’t understand ring control. They think they do until they’re against someone who really understands how to set traps, how to create holes in the Octagon that they fall into. He will learn on March 5, and he will learn it pretty early.”
Perhaps McGregor will still get his shot at dos Anjos, in the future. Regardless, his overall career plan will probably remain constant.
“Take all the belts, take all the money, ride back to beautiful Dublin, Ireland, into the sunset,” he said, of how he wants his story to end.
