Fansided

UFC fighter Conor McGregor takes shot at golfer Rory McIlroy

By Mike Dyce

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Conor McGregor took a shot at golfer Rory McIlroy in a column he wrote for an Irish newspaper.

UFC featherweight Conor McGregor is writing a new column in an Irish newspaper. For those familiar with the Irishman, they know something of note almost always comes out of his mouth when he is holding a microphone, so we should all expect something great when he is writing as well.

And McGregor delivered.

“I can say with absolute certainty that there is no harder working sportsman in Ireland,” McGregor wrote Ireland’s Independent. “There is no sportsman with more on the line than me right now. They are queuing up to see me fall. To see me face down. All over the world they want to see it. If you think I am going to pretend to be humble and be somebody I am not in this business you are crazy.

“If your consciousness, your facial structure, your limbs are not on the line, nothing is on the line. I have it all on the line. On a global scale. Like no other Irish athlete before me. Excuse me for acting the way I act. Excuse me for occasionally rubbing it in. For being over the top. Cocky and arrogant. There is good reason.”

Some might read that and think of notable Irish athlete Rory McIlroy, the No. 1 golfer in the world. According to Balls.ie, McGregor was more specific and named McIlroy.

“Rory McIlroy is worth 50 million. Fifty million earned in a game with essentially nothing on the line,” McGregor allegedly wrote.

That quote isn’t in the posted article on the Independent’s site, so we’re not sure he actually ever wrote this. Perhaps he did and the site edited it out quickly after the column went live.

This is a guy who has declared himself the “King of Dublin,” why not all of Ireland.

Even without that quote, McGregor still takes a dig at McIlroy with the claim as the hardest working sportsman in Ireland. Some might point out that McIlroy is from Northern Ireland while McGregor is from Ireland, but argument is rather moot considering McIlroy declared that he’d play for the Republic of Ireland at the Olympics.

Golf fans could point out that McGregor has fought just once this year, and his second fight isn’t until July. McIlroy on the other hand has won two tournaments in recent weeks. That includes a win at the Wells Fargo Championship by seven strokes, setting a new tournament record score of 267 in the process. He has won three tournaments this year, not to mention a top five finish at The Masters and a top ten finish at The Players Championship.

Mixed martial arts and UFC fans would remind those men that training for a fight takes months, and the brutality of the sports prevent most fighters from fighting on a more regular basis.

Not everyone can be Donald Cerrone.

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