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Conor McGregor crowning himself champion after vicious UFC 178 victory

McGregor calls competition at featherweight ‘full of rookies and has-beens’

UFC 178

L.E. Baskow

Featherweight fighter Conor McGregor pounds on a defenseless Dustin Poirier, who was kicked to the ground and would soon be eliminated, during UFC 178 on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014, at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

UFC 178: Main Card

Lightweight fighter Donald Cerrone readies to send another punch to the head of Eddie Alvarez during UFC 178 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014. Launch slideshow »

Conor McGregor tugged on the shoulder pads of his self-described “ivory elephant-trunk suit” as he strutted into the UFC 178 post-fight press conference.

Once he sat down, the 26-year-old from Dublin fiddled on multiple occasions with the shimmering gold watch covering the majority of his wrist. He often directed his eyes, concealed by designer sunglasses, toward the ceiling lights and smiled as he listened to the proceedings.

“I whoop people for trunkloads of cash,” McGregor said in his thick Irish accent. “How could I hate this life? I love it so much.”

Apologies are in order to the faction of fans who hoped Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena would present McGregor with a lesson in humility. In the end, McGregor’s bravado was only boosted, and deservedly so after he wiped out Dustin Poirier with a TKO victory 106 seconds into their featherweight fight.

McGregor found himself surrounded by peers destined for championship opportunities after the card. Dominick Cruz and Cat Zingano set themselves up for title shots at the bantamweight and women’s bantamweight divisions, respectively. Demetrious Johnson defended his flyweight belt for the fifth consecutive time.

McGregor was in the minority of fighters with no immediate guarantees, yet he made it feel like he was the only one celebrating. He showed up on the Fox Sports 1 set with a UFC championship belt and placed it in front of him.

McGregor later dismissed the chances of either Jose Aldo or Chad Mendes, who meet for the featherweight championship next month at UFC 179 in Rio de Janeiro, beating him.

“I will dismantle both of them,” McGregor said. “(Mendes) should be at 125, but he’s gone past that limit. Now he’s just a little small bodybuilder stuck at the 145-pound division; he gets tired quick. He’s 5-foot-6 with a 65-inch reach. I have an 8-inch reach over him. I will tower over him. I will maul Chad, and Jose, I feel he’s in that pattern of deterioration. So again, another easy win. It seems to me that the division is full of rookies and has-beens.”

McGregor confirmed his status as a growing superstar was valid beyond inside his own head at UFC 178. In front of sections of rabid fans chanting and decked out in Irish gear — 10 percent of the 10,544 tickets were sold to Ireland addresses — McGregor took control early.

McGregor exchanged with Poirier but seemed to land the cleaner shots with more force. He was in such command that the left hand he landed flush to Poirier’s temple to start the finishing sequence — McGregor connected with a few more shots after Poirier hit the ground — wasn’t a surprise.

“I would have liked to have it connect with the chin,” McGregor said. “I would have liked it to connect cleaner, but there’s so much beautiful tissue back there. If you crack that little soft area, there’s no coming back from that.”

Poirer, the No. 5-ranked featherweight in the world, had never lost by stoppage coming into the fight. McGregor was quick to remind everyone of the promise he had made for months.

Much to the chagrin of White, McGregor spent the whole lead-up into the fight guaranteeing not only a knockout but a first-round knockout.

“I kept saying he was setting himself up,” White said. “But he did exactly what he said he was going to do. Did I think Conor was going to win tonight? I had no idea. Did I think he was actually going to go out and stop Poirier in the first round? I did not.”

Part of White’s pessimism could have come from being privy to injury information. McGregor verified rumors that he hurt his hand last month.

He said he tore ligaments in his thumb, which swelled up to the size of “a little football” and left him unable to grip or punch for the final month of his training camp. When White asked about it two weeks ago after the fighter arrived in Las Vegas, McGregor responded that he didn’t “need a thumb to fight.”

“I knew I was going to overcome it, so that’s what I did,” McGregor said. “I have a bulletproof mind. There’s nothing that can break me. It’s just a thumb.”

McGregor now has two first-round knockouts — the other came over Diego Brandao in the main event of July’s Dublin card — since returning in less than a year from major knee surgery.

The only bout he didn’t finish out of his four in the UFC, a unanimous decision over Max Holloway in August 2013 in Boston, was the fight in which he tore his ACL.

When White reminisces on the rise, however, he first thinks back to a year and a half ago after the UFC signed McGregor. White flew McGregor to Las Vegas to meet him.

“We went and ate, hung out a little bit,” White reflected. “I told (UFC CEO) Lorenzo (Fertitta), ‘If this kid can do anything, if this kid can even throw a punch, this kid is going to be something.’ And it’s bigger than anything I’ve ever seen before. It’s crazy.”

There’s no end in sight. McGregor plans to fly down to Brazil for Aldo vs. Mendes II next month with Fertitta.

He’s going to stay in shape just to be ready in case one of the fighters suffers an unforeseen injury. McGregor will hold back nothing when it comes to his motives.

“It’s a business and I’m out to get in, get rich and get out,” he said. “I have no problem getting in and eliminating these people.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.

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