Advertisement

UNDAUNTED: Rat in a cage

I love my sport. I disappeared at my bother’s wedding to watch the Olympics in Montreal (I ...
Newstalk
Newstalk

14.12 1 Jul 2015


Share this article


UNDAUNTED: Rat in a cage

UNDAUNTED: Rat in a cage

Newstalk
Newstalk

14.12 1 Jul 2015


Share this article


I love my sport.

I disappeared at my bother’s wedding to watch the Olympics in Montreal (I was 9). I still get goose bumps when I hear Alive & Kicking and think of Richard Keys' US style colourful jacket.

On the flip side, there are times when heartbreak was a kick of a ball (damn you Michael Thomas and that 1989 goal).

Advertisement

I love my sport.

There was even something weirdly hypnotic about the stripped back feed from Baku. We knew the commentators where in a darkened space somewhere in Dublin but what the hell. It was sport.

I love my sport.

There are sports that make even me, a sportaholic, sigh and think "no." These are the ‘Kanye at Glastonbury’ sports. Top of the list goes to WWE or whatever final letter it uses now. It’s a freak show. Now, I loved the legendary Saturday afternoon UK wrestling – probably just as staged – but it did have a smattering of sporting endeavour.

WWE/F/G has none of this. Freak show. Great light show but absolutely no substance. Just like Kanye at Glastonbury.

It has a competitor, though. UFC. No, not the crowd who do broadband. UFC.

Who are we kidding? It’s cage fighting. In my book cage fighting takes place in places like Ba Da Bing, the strip joint from The Sopranos. You can imagine mob boss Tony laying bets on the next bout. We will be travelling into the badlands to watch it. You can imagine your friendly nightclub bouncer and his buds getting ready to watch.

Oh, if only that were true. UFC is now big business. Huge. And it sells out big casinos in Vegas. And at its heart is a wannabe Irish sporting hero.

In a cruel twist of fate, today marks the 25th anniversary of the return of the Irish soccer team from Italia 90. It took them three hours to get from the airport to College Green in an open-top bus. Real heroes. Yet the sports news today is dominated by Conor McGregor.

McGregor is exploiting the cheeky chappy image. We’ve seen it before. Chris Eubank dressed in tweeds and wore a monocle throughout his career but there was something mischievous about it. He knew the tweeds and the upper hook was an odd combination. He loved it – and it captured the imagination.

McGregor fails the irony test. He thinks dressing in proper ‘threads’ gives him a legitimacy. The noble sportsman.

No. No. No.

There is something hollow at the centre of the whole McGregor thing.

His fans love him. His bombast strikes a chord with a certain cohort of Irish males. It is a depressing mixture of macho and downright violence. In his world, he will be world champion by knocking his opponent’s block of.

It is extreme violence.

It is nasty.

In my book, it is not a sport. 


Share this article


Read more about

News

Most Popular