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[UFC Fight Week]

Inside Conor McGregor’s training mansion, as he prepares to dominate in UFC 189

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Freedom of movement: McGregor rented a local mansion to be his training bunker (and home to his impressive suit collection).
Photo: Christopher DeVargas

Movement fascinates Conor McGregor, so it makes sense that the home the 26-year-old UFC star rented ahead of the biggest fight of his career teems with constant motion.

McGregor wakes after 3 p.m. on a recent day, and teammates fly through the foyer of the 12,000-square-foot, seven-bedroom space like punches thrown in a brawl. Three roommates/training partners from his native Dublin’s Straight Blast Gym prepare food in a kitchen exclusively stocked with vegetables, chicken breasts and protein supplements. Another couple of fighters check their phones and pace by a bar loaded with kickboxing pads, knee braces and sponsorship T-shirts. The only stillness comes from McGregor himself, who’s on the other side of the floor-to-ceiling glass doors holding a headstand.

“The more freedom you have in your movement, the more freedom you have as a person, the more freedom you have in a fight,” McGregor says of starting the day with yoga under the desert sun.

Elegant machine: Conor McGregor trains at a UFC gym.

Elegant machine: Conor McGregor trains at a UFC gym.

It’s as if the featherweight nicknamed “The Notorious” activates a pause button when he comes inside. Everyone freezes and looks in the direction of McGregor, who drops into his southpaw stance and fires a pair of punches at an invisible opponent. He finishes the combination with a side kick to the corner of the living-room wall, backing away without dropping the hands guarding his face. McGregor then summons one of his colleagues to the un-air-conditioned basement to practice Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Welcome to the “Mac Mansion,” a castle in the heart of Henderson where everyone knows who’s king and one of the only rules is that his word is law.

“Whatever I feel at a given time, that’s what we do,” McGregor says. “No schedule, no routine. Feel guides me. That’s what this setup allows me to do. When I want to train, we all train. When I’m not training, no one trains.”

Other obligations have caused some of the coaches and fighters to come and go during the two months McGregor has lived in the mansion, but as many as 15 confidants have shared it at a time. They’re subject to McGregor’s every whim throughout the day, along with an elongated nighttime training session at one of the UFC’s private gyms. The latter usually begins sometime between midnight and 2 a.m. and lasts two or three hours.

McGregor believes those unique preparation tactics will lead him to victory against Chad Mendes Saturday night in the main event of UFC 189 at MGM Grand Garden Arena. The two will fight for the interim featherweight title, after champion Jose Aldo fractured a rib that forced him to pull out of a bout with McGregor last week. McGregor was seen as the foil that Aldo, ranked as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world, has lacked in winning 17 straight fights over the past nine years.

Vision of victory: UFC President Dana White reportedly shared that McGregor offered to bet $3 million that he’ll knock out Mendes in the second round.

UFC President Dana White described the original matchup as the biggest fight his league had ever promoted globally. Anticipation prompted the UFC to spend record money on the event, including a press tour that stopped in five countries. But McGregor must now get past Mendes—whose only two losses came at the hands of Aldo—to salvage a fight that could produce one of the highest grosses in UFC history.

“I just go in there formless, ruthless, cold and that’s it,” McGregor said after the opponent switch. “It doesn’t matter who’s in front of me or their style, what approach they have. My approach will win the fight.”

*****

McGregor often relaxes between workouts by maintaining and reviewing a list on the Notes app of his iPhone. Titled “And New (Champion), World Championship-Ending Shots,” the document details at least 20 techniques he can see himself using to finish the fight at UFC 189.

Vision isn’t far behind movement in McGregor’s hierarchy of importance. He swears he visualized all of his success right after turning professional in mixed martial arts, an oath corroborated by those around him.

“He said from the start that he was going to be world champion,” says James Gallagher, an amateur fighter who began training with McGregor six years ago. “Now it’s happening. He always believed. He won’t stop until a vision becomes a reality. He’s never changed; his visions only get bigger.”

McGregor continued trusting in his vision even when it appeared irresponsible. He lived off Ireland’s public assistance program for a couple of years while fighting after quitting a plumbing apprenticeship. He nearly missed a flight to Stockholm for his UFC debut in April 2013 while collecting a social welfare check. “It was a double week, so it was a good one,” McGregor recalls. “I needed that money. I was training and fighting with no money, no nothing. A grown man with no money is not a nice f*cking thing.”

He would never experience that embarrassment again after knocking out Marcus Brimage a minute into the bout, earning a $60,000 performance bonus to go with a base salary of $16,000. The paycheck was almost completely gone a few months later.

Dana White became acquainted with McGregor’s aspirations of grandeur when the boss flew his new fighter to Las Vegas for the first time. White drove down the Strip in his Ferrari while McGregor sat in the passenger seat speaking with imminence about purchasing his own luxury cars.

Conor McGregor Open Workout

“I remember getting out of his car, looking around and telling him, ‘I’m going to own this town one day,’” McGregor says. “And I wasn’t lying.”

White preached patience the whole trip, and McGregor ignored his pleas, spending those days lobbying for bigger fights and making guarantees White doubted he could keep. But the confidence struck White, who shared as much with UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta.

“I told Lorenzo, ‘If this kid can do anything, if this kid can even throw a punch, this kid is going to be something,’” White says. “And it’s bigger than anything I’ve ever seen before.”

*****

McGregor could punch all right, knocking out three of his next four opponents within two rounds. The only exception was the unanimous-decision victory over Max Holloway on August 17, 2013. McGregor won every round on all three judges’ scorecards—despite having torn his ACL midway through the bout.

His recovery brought him back to Las Vegas, where it felt like every visit brought him closer to his wild ambitions. Before the second fight of a rapid comeback that took less than a year, Fertitta took McGregor to his personal tailor. McGregor’s suit collection is now the centerpiece of the mansion’s walk-in closet.

“People think growth comes from struggle, but I’m not one of those people,” he says. “I think growth comes from comfort. The more comfortable I get in everything else, the more uncomfortable I get at the same time. It pushes me further and makes me work harder to keep it all and get more.”

Patrick Timmons Ward has followed McGregor as a documentary filmmaker for the past three years. He’s one of three people living with McGregor who’s not part of the fight camp (along with his assistant and McGregor’s longtime girlfriend) but finds himself exhausted all the same.

Conor McGregor pounds on Max Holloway in a 2013 bout.

Conor McGregor pounds on Max Holloway in a 2013 bout.

The rigors of the job have never felt more demanding, with McGregor apt to break into a workout or other activity worth filming at any hour. McGregor insists on all of his training partners staying fresh and getting rest but sometimes borders on not following the guidelines for himself. He mostly relies on a nightly massage or physical therapy sessions for his own revitalization.

“Conor is a genius,” Timmons Ward says. “He’s always learning from people. I guess the way he sees it is, the more people you have around, the more opinions you have and the more body types you have to work with. It’s amazing how he does totally different things with different guys when they’re training.”

Like everything else in his career, McGregor says he dreamed of moving everyone he needed to the location of a fight and running this type of camp. He can’t understand why more UFC fighters haven’t attempted a similar plan in the past, but expects imitators to follow. He thinks the around-the-clock training experience at the Mac Mansion will be remembered as “the evolution of fight preparation.”

“I’ve started to accept that it’s natural,” McGregor says. “Society was telling me that this was not the way to do it, so I abided by what society was telling me but my body and mind moved me to something different.”

At the end of the house’s main hallway, McGregor has stripped down to compression shorts while changing for a photo shoot when his body suddenly compels another stretching exercise. He contorts his legs out to the side and presses his chest toward the floor, showing off flexibility few in the world could match.

But the pose isn’t perfect, and McGregor knows it. There’s no sign of frustration as he pops back to his feet, just conviction that one day he’ll own the technique. And maybe Las Vegas.

UFC 189 July 11, doors at 3 p.m., $128-$1,003, MGM Grand Garden Arena; pay-per-view begins at 7 p.m., $50-$60.

Tags: Sports, Featured, UFC
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Case Keefer

Case Keefer has spent more than a decade covering his passions at Greenspun Media Group. He's written about and supervised ...

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