Conor McGregor went from manic to Zen master in Las Vegas on Wednesday as he insisted that for the first time in his professional career he has a point to prove - and he's ready to emphatically go prove it.
The UFC's interim featherweight champion, so often an electric, uncontrollable presence under the bright lights of this city, dimmed things way down in the final press conference before Saturday night's showdown with the division's undisputed and undefeated champion Jose Aldo.
"I am in a state of Zen right now. My mind is calm, composed. I am prepared and happy," McGregor said, slowly, deliberately.
"This must be close to 15 press conferences that I have done without fighting this man. I'm ready. Training at home does something to me. I am here in a moment of Zen and I am ready for the fight of my life.
"I am a man with something to prove. A man with something to prove is dangerous. I will be looking to make the world a different place."
The Irish invasion that greeted McGregor throughout that momentous July week when he claimed the interim title by knocking out Chad Mendes in this same storied venue has yet to materialise on the Strip.
While this conference was reasonably well attended, tricolours were far from ubiquitous. As the weekend nears, the influx is expected to ramp up.
It didn't seem to both the UFC's biggest star. In keeping with his seemingly spiritual approach to this defining night, the Dubliner said Aldo would be fighting a ghost in the octagon.
"I visualise entering the contest and being unpredictable I will pressure him, I will evade him, I will strike him with every limb," said the 27-year-old.
"I will be a ghost in there. He will think that I'm there and then I'm not there. He will think that I'm not there and then I'll be there. This will prove my point. I am number one.
"I feel that Jose like many individuals in the game are stuck in their routine, in the same pattern. They exit, enter, hit, grapple the same. It's routine, it's repetition. I feel routine will close off your mind and lock the frame. It is predictable, that's where I feel his weakness lies."
McGregor has at times begrudgingly admitted admiration for Aldo's unprecedented era of dominance. There was even a subtle nod to the Brazilian after the two squared off for the cameras following this gathering.
However, he insisted that he has never considered standing on ceremony for any of the game's big names.
"Many people have done many great things in the sport. I have been a fan of the game for so, so long. When I first laid eyes on this sport, the one thing I thought then when I was 15, 16 years of age, my thought was 'I can beat these people'," he said.
"I always thought I was better. The pound-for-pound [title] is up for grabs here. Like I said, I'm a man with a point to prove. That's what this is, When I make that walk, I am unshackling chains off me. I simply [get in there] and do it as I feel. The closer the fight comes there is no face, my face becomes blank. Back on the world tour I acted in that moment. But now war is on us and I am calm, cold, ruthless."
As he has insisted throughout this at times almost endless promotional run - stretching for nearly 14 months - Aldo wasn't for rising to any of McGregor's fighting talk.
"I don't dwell on what he says. Whatever he says doesn't get through to me. I have faith in my trainers and my team to go in there and get it done," said Aldo.
"If the fight stays on its feet, I'm going to finish it. If it goes to the ground, I'm going to finish it."
UFC president Dana White, relieved to finally be on the verge of seeing the megafight come to pass, revealed that McGregor made an eleventh-hour bid to headline October's fight night in Dublin's docklands. When Joseph Duffy was forced to withdraw from the main bout of the night against Dustin Poirier, McGregor was quickly on the phone.
"[In July] we literally went to Conor's house and spoke to him. We said Chad was going to take the fight and he [took it]," White said of the breezy negotiations that followed Aldo's withdrawal from July's originally scheduled title defence against McGregor.
"It was that fast and that was the conversation. Then when [Joe] Duffy pulled out of his fight, Conor [called] and wanted to fight Poirier in Ireland and then come here and fight Aldo [in December]. That's when I said he was nuts."
