Conor McGregor's UFC stock continues to rise

Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight champion Conor McGregor talks about his UFC 196 main event as he departs a pre-fight news conference on Feb. 24 after a verbal lashing of opponent Nate Diaz. (Video by Christina House / For The Times)

By Lance Pugmire

March 1, 2016 4:40 PM PT

Conor McGregor leaned back and stretched out his legs, scrolling social media as his driver navigated an SUV through the streets from a UFC Gym in Torrance to McGregor’s rented oceanfront home in Hermosa Beach.

The charismatic Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight champion had just left a news conference last week and was satisfied from the instant worldwide reaction to his verbal lashing of Nate Diaz, his opponent Saturday in Las Vegas.

“They loved it,” McGregor said, smiling to himself.

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McGregor said he adores the attention he has generated in his rise, from fighting amateur MMA bouts a decade ago in Ireland, to winning a featherweight title in December when he ended the 10-year unbeaten run of Brazil’s Jose Aldo in 13 seconds.

McGregor (19-2) was denied a shot to become the first UFC fighter to simultaneously hold two belts because lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos last week withdrew from their scheduled bout Saturday because of a foot injury. So McGregor agreed to a massive jump from the 145-pound featherweight limit to 170 pounds to fight Diaz in the main event of UFC 196 at MGM Grand.

Diaz (26-9), who prides himself as a rowdy, anti-authority fighter, was outclassed at times during McGregor’s verbal roast.

“[The UFC] likes to hold certain people back, [but] they’re pushing McGregor to the sky,” Diaz complained earlier in the day.

In the first five minutes of the news conference, McGregor, 27, chided Diaz because he teaches youth MMA lessons at home in Lodi. McGregor mocked Diaz as “a little cholo … [who] makes gang signs with the right hand and animal balloons with the left hand.”

How did the Irishman know the term “cholo”?

“It’s a Mexican gangster. I have Mexican friends over here on the West Coast, they’ve been educating me on the ways of these people,” McGregor said on the SUV ride. “The Irish heritage and Mexican heritage are very similar. We are brought up through warfare. We are true fighters. Look at the history of boxing … [the best fighters from each country] fought with everything they had.”

McGregor’s growing appeal has him challenging Ronda Rousey as the UFC’s top draw.

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Conor McGregor during a news conference on Feb. 24.

(Christina House / For The Times)

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Conor McGregor, right, speaks during a news conference at UFC Gym in Torrance on Feb. 24.

(Christina House / For The Times)

“To get that reception from the fans is an honor,” he said. “It’s a good life.”

McGregor’s knockout of Aldo set a UFC live-gate record at MGM Grand of $10.1 million. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated last week, and at a red light on his drive home three motorists jumped from their car to get him to sign their magazines.

He joked that weight classes and belts no longer matter for his fights, boasting his involvement alone makes “the McGregor belt” more intriguing.

“Every time, my purse rises,” McGregor said.

McGregor is 5 feet 9, so his move to fight at 170 pounds against the 6-foot Diaz, a former 155-pound title contender, provides a new challenge.

When McGregor was reminded that fighters who move up in weight often lose their power punching, he answered, “I have insane power … my training partners have been welterweights [170-pounders] my whole career, so it’s not a strange feeling to me. It’s a normal weight I’ve felt.

“[Diaz] is too slow. His shots are too slow, too labored. He pushes his shots.”

Nick Diaz, a former Strikeforce welterweight champion and the brother of Nate, says his younger brother has benefited from training with former super-middleweight boxing champion Andre Ward. The experience in a boxing ring makes Nate Diaz a more sophisticated stand-up fighter than anyone McGregor has faced, his brother said.

“We’ll see, when the heel is swinging by his head at 100 mph, how he reacts,” McGregor said.

Further, McGregor felt comfortable that Nate Diaz seemed a bit unstable as they faced off for cameras last week.

“He has a lot of people in his ear and he’s trying to live up to something, I feel, so it’ll affect him,” McGregor said. “And it’ll cost him dearly.”

McGregor’s calculated tirades about his opponents go beyond typical UFC fight talk, but he responds that penetrating a foe’s psyche does not violate any martial arts code.

“This is prizefighting, the fight business,” he said. “Words mean nothing in this game when you get in there and you’re looking to inflict damage. Who cares about words? There’s respect, but it’s the fight business.”

In last week’s news conference, Diaz was able to annoy McGregor by alleging that the Irishman takes steroids.

McGregor called the claim “absolutely ridiculous,” claiming “I was the most tested fighter in 2015.”

If McGregor wins Saturday at 170 pounds, he can select from multiple options for a possible appearance at UFC 200 in July, from a return to featherweight, to a Dos Anjos meeting or a date with welterweight champion Robbie Lawler.

“We’ll see. I’m just up for competing,” McGregor said. “I know [on Saturday] I’ll be stepping inside the octagon to put on a masterpiece. That’s what I do know.”

Follow Lance Pugmire on Twitter @latimespugmire

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