{"id":373197,"date":"2021-01-14T11:57:04","date_gmt":"2021-01-14T19:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=373197"},"modified":"2021-01-14T11:57:04","modified_gmt":"2021-01-14T19:57:04","slug":"conor-mcgregor-explains-how-hes-changed-since-mma-career-began","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/conor-mcgregor-explains-how-hes-changed-since-mma-career-began\/","title":{"rendered":"Conor McGregor explains how he&#8217;s changed since MMA career began"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former two-division UFC Conor McGregor says he&#8217;s matured since he began his mixed martial arts journey back in 2007.<\/p>\n<p>McGregor is currently gearing up for <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/dana-white-believes-mcgregor-vs-poirier-rematch-will-be-a-war\/\">a lightweight showdown<\/a> with No. 2-ranked contender Dustin Poirier, which will headline the UFC 257 card on January 23.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of the matchup, McGregor appeared on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/uBNDGnmHTUA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Weighing In<\/em><\/a> podcast with former MMA referee John McCarthy and former Strikeforce lightweight champion Josh Thomson, where he was asked how he&#8217;s changed since his combat sports journey began.<\/p>\n<p>He was quick to respond that he&#8217;s matured\u2014particularly since becoming a father.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"WEIGHING IN #112 with CONOR MCGREGOR | POIRIER FIGHT | LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE | DIAZ TRILOGY\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uBNDGnmHTUA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Maturity,&#8221; McGregor said. &#8220;I&#8217;m a father now. I&#8217;ve come through a lot in my life, under this microscope and in this spotlight, and I&#8217;ve certainly become a more mature man.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve taken all the lessons on board, and I&#8217;m going to put then to my advantage, and I have been putting them to use,&#8221; McGregor added. &#8220;I remain committed, I remain structured\u2014the true keys to to success\u2014and I&#8217;m excited to go in there and perform.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Conor McGregor last fought in January of 2020, when he defeated record-collecting veteran Donald &#8220;Cowboy&#8221; Cerrone via first-round TKO. It took the Irishman just 40 seconds to seal the deal with a series of shoulder strikes, a head kick, and a volley of ground strikes. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Prior to his win over Cerrone, McGregor had not tasted victory since all the way back in November of 2016, when he knocked out Eddie Alvarez to become a two-division UFC champion. After his win over Alvarez, he came up short in a blockbuster boxing match with undefeated legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2017, then tapped out to undefeated UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>His bout with Poirier will be a rematch of a 2014 featherweight fight that he won by first-round knockout. Do you think he can make it 2-0 against the American at UFC 257?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former two-division UFC Conor McGregor says he&#8217;s matured since he began his mixed martial arts journey back in 2007. McGregor is currently gearing up for a lightweight showdown with No. 2-ranked contender Dustin Poirier, which will headline the UFC 257 card on January 23. Ahead of the matchup, McGregor appeared on the\u00a0Weighing In podcast with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":373186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10089,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Conor McGregor explains how he&#039;s changed since MMA career began | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former two-division UFC Conor McGregor says he&#039;s matured since he began his mixed martial arts journey back in 2007.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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