Conor McGregor was speaking to his doctors just hours after surgery after suffering a horrific injury when his leg was severed at the end of the first round in his fight against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264.
While discussing his recovery and rehabilitation plans, the former second-division UFC champ wasn’t necessarily considering how long it would take him to get back on his feet again and wasn’t overwhelmed by defeat after a second straight loss to Poirier.
Instead, he was telling his doctors about his eventual fighting comeback.
Gautham Chopra, director of the new Netflix documentary MacGregor forever MMA fighting said. “It’s like you don’t fight that hard and you don’t lose. Losing is definitely part of the journey. He’s not precious about it. He’s just so much fun. He analyzes right away and is ready for the next battle.”
You see it in that crazy hospital scene. We all saw his ankle snap and there’s another scene where he’s trying to convince the doctor ‘No, I’ll be fine, give me two months.’ He’s already planning his comeback, his next fight. You’re like wow, this is a one of a kind guy.” .
Chopra, co-founder of Religion of Sports and has presented previous documentaries such as Man in the Ring: Tom Brady And Shut up and shufflewhich focused on LeBron James, has spent the better part of the past three years developing this new documentary about McGregor.
He admits he wasn’t necessarily the biggest fan of the fight but there was just something totally cool about McGregor that got him interested in the project. Chopra admits he could never have predicted how things would turn out when he first started following McGregor after his boxing match against Floyd Mayweather and his subsequent return to the UFC for his fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“It’s Documentary Filmmaking 101,” Chopra explained. “There’s a plan, there’s a blueprint or a vision, and then there’s what you capture, what’s really going on, what’s in the box, the stronger stuff. The hospital scene that really happens at the end.” [of the documentary] Very powerful and very intimate and interesting but it’s like how did we get here?
“You discover things in the editing room but that was just one of several dramatic things that happened. You adjust around it.”
Like all athletes competing in professional sports, McGregor faces the same potential hit-or-miss outcomes, but Chopra admits he was drawn to the idea that he was about to watch the Irish star rise to greatness.
What really happened is that McGregor fell to Poirier in back-to-back fights with the last match ending with that devastating injury.
“Everyone expects to win,” Chopra said. “That’s what you do. You go for a ride and it’s like ‘he’s training really hard, he’s looking really good’ and you listen to all the coaches saying to you ‘he’s never been in better shape in his life, his mind’s right’ and all that stuff. You go into fights thinking, of course, he’s going to win those fights.
“I was in both [Dustin] Poirier fights, and we had a vision, and I’ve been through this before with Tom Brady where you think he’s going to win the Super Bowl and he doesn’t. You adapt. I have to say for the filmmaking, for the storytelling, for the loss — I don’t want to say it’s better but it’s more interesting. It gives you more stress. It gives you more storytelling opportunities than just another victory. I think that’s the case here.”
Much like Brady’s comeback from losing in the Super Bowl and then winning the following year, Chopra has seen McGregor begin to rise from defeat with the same kind of ferocity.
In fact, Chopra says McGregor shares one particularly strong trait he’s seen in Brady, James and Golden State Warriors guard Steve Curry, which likely helps them amass the kinds of accomplishments only possible in the best of the best.
“I would say the common factor is our uncompromising work ethic,” Chopra said. “This obsession with getting it right. You’ve seen it with Tom in pitching sessions or Steve Curry in pitching sessions. You’re talking in the case of Tom the greatest ever with the quarterbacks, or Steve Curry the greatest shooter of all time or in the case of LeBron, they are Like mad scientists in a lab.
“I’ve seen this with Connor in his training sessions. He’s obsessed with the little things. [We shot a lot of footage in training] And Connor will look at the tape and every little movement. It’s a crazy world. He is a perfectionist. It’s like you’re supposed to work out for two hours and after four hours you’re still going. I’m always looking for that next level, that edge to get it right. This is the common factor.”
The difference between McGregor and all these other athletes is that he competes in a singles sport where he has no one to rely on but himself when he steps foot in the UFC octagon.
“You can — and Conor — have the greatest trainers, nutritionists, and he uses technology, all this stuff and preps, and you see where he’s at, and his trainers say this, push him in the octagon, lock the cage,” Chopra said. “It’s a violent sport. I’ve never seen anything like it.
“Steve could be Clay’s day off [Thompson] Is there or in LeBron’s case with Anthony Davis and Tom always saying “I had [Rob Gronkowski]I had had [Julian Edelman]I had Wes Welker and Randy Moss, and I had a complete defense that would stick with me when I had a bad game. You don’t get that in combat. So there is something very different about Connor mentally and emotionally.”
The four-part series, which debuted on Netflix Wednesday, takes an intimate look at McGregor’s life and career beyond what he did in combat. There are quiet moments where McGregor plays with his kids in the park as well as the occasion when he and longtime girlfriend Dee Devlin find out the gender of their next child.
It’s been an amazing journey to follow McGregor, who is arguably one of the most recognizable celebrities worldwide, while also becoming one of the richest celebrities, says Chopra. In fact, McGregor often touts the outrageous amounts of money he made while spending millions to buy a Lamborghini yacht or a new mansion in his native Ireland.
At the same time, McGregor’s making more money than he could spend over 10 lives has led to questions about his commitment to the fight. As famous boxer Marvin Hagler once said “It’s hard to get out of bed to do road work at 5 in the morning when you’re sleeping in your silk pajamas.”
While no one doubts that McGregor is definitely living a much more leisurely lifestyle these days, Chopra says from everything he saw while shooting this documentary, the drive and desire to get back into the fight and get back to the top of the sport is still very much there. inherent in it.
“Even with the race cars and the yachts and all the money, I’ve never seen him say ‘let’s cut this internship short.'” Chopra said. “There’s just something about this sport, you just can’t do that. You can’t walk into the octagon unprepared. You will get your ass hit or worse. You can’t do that, so it seems like he’s still there mentally and emotionally.
“He’s very committed. His career isn’t over yet. I think there’s a reality where your body ages, you take a lot of damage in this sport, and I watched it with Tom and LeBron but they’re exceptions. We’re in an era where you can’t go on forever. I think People are legitimately wondering, but I don’t think mentally, emotionally, or spiritually that this guy is in danger at all. He still wants it so badly.”