Conor McGregor has had quite a successful career for more than a decade. The Irish MMA fighter has multiple championship titles to his name and is one of the most well-known fighters out there today. He even recently made the transition from the octagon to the screen, starring opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in the new fight-filled flick Road House.
Some actors, such as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, largely leave their wrestling and fighting careers behind when they begin appearing in movies. McGregor, however, has no intentions of ever retiring from fighting. He explained his perspective in a March 28 interview with TNT Sports.
"Mike Tyson now is fighting Jake Paul. He fought Roy Jones also," he said. "There you go: That’s an older guy." Tyson and Jones are nearly the same age in their mid- to late-fifties, and McGregor admitted that he would have to face off against fighters closer to his age as he gets older. Still, he doesn't plan on ever retiring.
"Recalibrate your competition," he explained. "There’s a reason that in jiu-jitsu tournaments there’s like the veteran division and all this. So I don’t really feel like I could ever call it a day to it until I’m laid out flat, and that’s it."
"In a box and going down into the ground—that’s when I’ll call it a day," he continued. "Something that really struck me with Mike Tyson was he was asked in an interview around the Roy Jones Jr. fight [in 2020], 'What do you think Cus D’Amato'—who was his mentor and coach—'What do you think Cus D’Amato would say to you after all these years? Why come back now?' And what Tyson said was, 'What Cus would say to me is, "What took you so long?"' That really hit me."
Related: Fighting Words with Conor "Notorious" McGregor
While the 35-year-old fighter plans to fight until he's six feet under, he also isn't just going to keep fighting recklessly against whoever will challenge him. After a three-year break, McGregor knows better than ever the importance of "rest, recuperation, [and] recalibration."
"I’m not going to be 40-odd and looking at the 19-year-old wunderkind from wherever he’s from," McGregor said. "Even though they might be calling me out. Look at all my potential opponents I have."
"I have gangs of opponents that I have history with—trilogies, secondary fights, fresh fights even. These are all similar age to me. So if these people are similar age to me and I have the audience’s interest—which I do—who’s to say these fights won’t take place whenever they’ll take place?" he added. "It’s to the grave. It’s to the motherf--king grave."
McGregor's long-awaited return to the octagon has yet to be scheduled. In the meantime, you can watch his fighting skills on screen in Road House, now streaming on Prime Video.
