Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) watched its biggest star (so says this guy) get knocked out last month in Australia (see it), thanks to a dominant performance from new women's bantamweight champion and former boxing titleholder Holly Holm.
Yes, it was "tough to watch."
The good news is, UFC still has another top attraction in Conor McGregor, who fights Jose Aldo for the undisputed featherweight championship in the UFC 194 pay-per-view (PPV) main event on Sat., Dec. 12, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
To that end, "Notorious" has no intention of ending up like Ronda Rousey, and will take all the pre-fight nonsense and "push everything away" once he steps foot inside the Octagon.
"Still the mind," as he told reporters during Wednesday's media scrum (via MMA Fighting):
"I know there was problems. I can't really see her situation. I don't know her situation. From looking from where I was at, I could see that maybe she's doing a little too much on the media side. That coupled with personal life that I don't know about, maybe could've hampered her training a little bit. Maybe could have hampered her mind. And then the particular style of opponent in Holly. It all kind of combined into making her a little bit too emotionally invested. The first thing I watch is the technical aspect of the contest. I watch Holly put on a good performance. She struck, she evaded. I watched Ronda fight a little bit emotionally invested. I'm sure she had many, many things going on. She's one of the hardest working fighters in the game -- media wise and work wise. She had a lot on her plate and it showed in the contest. Holly Holm came up in the dark, in the shadows. That can help a person. It's important just to still the mind. Calm it. Make everything smaller than it is. That's maybe what I would take from [Rousey's loss]."
A loss at UFC 194 would also cost him this.
McGregor, like Rousey before him, is enjoying his time on the mainstream circuit and selling his "Junior" fight to anyone who will listen (like this guy). How much that time away from the gym affects his ability to perform on fight night -- if at all -- remains to be seen.
But saying "no" does not come without its consequences.
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