There have been many combat sports stars compared to Muhammad Ali over the years, but the one who seems to fit the bill best when it comes to Ali’s confidence and swagger inside and outside the cage is Irish UFC superstar Conor McGregor. McGregor never seems to be at a loss for words, and has used his vicious wit to defeat several of his opponents in their heads before their fights even start.
McGregor posted this tribute today on Twitter in response to Ali’s passing at the age of 74:
Nobody will ever come close to this mans greatness.
And if they do, they better wake up and apologise. #RIPAli pic.twitter.com/ED2wgignB2— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) June 4, 2016
And while McGregor appreciates the comparisons to The Louisville Lip made by press and the fans, he “cannot accept” them.
“I take inspiration and motivation from absolutely everything and anything, people chasing their dreams, putting their head down and working hard,” he said after a reporter brought up Ali in March. “Obviously for me, Muhammad Ali was probably my first combat sports star that I looked up to. I’d never seen anything like that and I was fascinated by him growing up.”
“But thank you for the compliment. Again, it’s a comparison that’s been thrown at me a few times. But I cannot accept a comparison like that. Muhammad Ali is a special man, he done tings that are unthinkable. He changed culture, period. But again, I am honored to even be put in that bracket by some people, so thank you.”
McGregor’s reference to Ali changing culture bring into focus the boxing great’s fearless fight to open white society’s eyes to the evil being perpetuated against black people in America at the time. Before he became the beloved sporting great we know today, he was a controversial force that challenged people’s ideas of race and was never afraid to call out a so-called ally for the racism they didn’t even recognize they were exhibiting.
Conor definitely has the same gift of gab as Ali, and he may go down in history as one of the greatest of his sport as well. But when it comes to fighting for equality and making sacrifices to stand up for what he believed in, Ali has no peer.
