Nick Saban is just about as old school a figure as you could come across in sport. He coaches college American football. He does it well, very well in fact. Technology, modernity, that sort of thing, however, he does not do so well.
Saban, a man who in recent times went on the record to say "I don't Google. I don't know how. I don't even know how to text", wouldn't be expected to fall into any of the cultural brackets or demographics employed by the marketing folks over at the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
The houses of the Oireachtas, equally, are not the most likely hotbed of mixed martial arts. While, given some of the discoveries on Leinster House servers in recent years, it would be foolish to rule anything out, but it's unlikely that many UFC FightPass subscriptions are registered under Kildare St accounts.
Yet on Monday and Wednesday respectively, these were the alien environments where not so much the UFC, but its poster boy, was front and centre.
Saban, a tactical titan and master motivator, sent his Alabama team out for a National Championship final showdown against Clemson with Conor McGregor's mantra ringing in their ears. "We're not here to take part, we're here to take over," was the parting message from Saban as his charges left the locker-room.
Take over Alabama duly did, swarming Clemson and claiming another crown.
Things didn't go quite as well for McGregor Inc in the halls of power on Wednesday afternoon when a public petition to put the UFC world featherweight champion's face on a €1 coin fell at the first hurdle in front of the Committee on Public Petitions.
Ah well it was fun while it lasted. Next time petition to stick me on that nice fat purple 500 bill 😂😂😂 https://t.co/kIiQH6omlv
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) January 13, 2016
Richard Boyd Barrett's effort to bring a slice of reality to proceedings with a suggestion that there had been a "jokey element" to the whole idea was followed by an admission that there was still a "huge public interest" in the concept of having the Notorious one staring back at half of Europe from their wallets.
The story, by this stage, had already been picked up globally by Rolling Stone, Fox News and a sea of others. All in all then, just another regular week in the apparently real life of Conor McGregor.
Yet it was Tuesday that shaped up as a much more significant day than those either side of it. For McGregor Inc and its self-appointed CEO the confirmation that the 27-year-old will make a relatively rapid return to the octagon on 5 March, and move up to lightweight to face champion Rafael Dos Anjos, will have been cause for concentration.
It will have brought the bottom line back into sharp focus. And for McGregor, in spite of all that was achieved in a frenzied 2015, in this new year winning remains the bottom line. His insatiable ambition, his appetite for more of, well, everything dictates as much.
After claiming interim and then outright world titles in stunning Las Vegas victories over Chad Mendes and Jose Aldo Jr over the past six months, a common refrain was that McGregor now called the shots.
His own announcement of a return to the fight capital to take on Dos Anjos in two months painted such a picture, a mocked-up press release referencing a "McGregor Inc executive business decision brought to you by the king".
As is often the case with the sport that sells itself as the world's fastest growing, the truth lies a little below the surface. McGregor craves near total control of all aspects of what he sees as 'his' fight game. After the stunning knock-out of Aldo, the Dubliner looked all too comfortable at the post-fight podium (normally reserved for the sport's figurehead Dana White). He is clearly calling many, many more shots than this time last year.
The UFC, however, still control plenty of the ammunition. Case in point the fact that the Croke Park defence, long since promised by White but in reality still very much a pipe dream, was barely broached before this fight was locked in.
It is only through victory - each vaunted foe who crumbles and each gate and pay-per-view record that tumbles in front of an arena turned green - that McGregor wrestles more millions and more control of combat sports. Which brings us to Dos Anjos and with him a chance to make history as the first fighter ever to hold two world titles at the same time.
Another Brazilian opponent but in so many ways an altogether different one, the 31-year-old for a start speaks perfect English which will make selling this fight a whole lot easier.
Eschewing any of that 'new year, new you' stuff, McGregor kicked the show off in his faux press release, claiming he would behead the 'traitor' on behalf of the Brazilian people, Dos Anjos' apparent treachery being his decision to reside Stateside.
Dos Anjos opening as favourite signals the true task at hand. Vastly experienced, the southpaw has been retooled in recent years, a new focus on speed and movement paying rich dividends. He now possesses a striking power to match his lethal threat on the ground. It was never more apparent in December when seven days removed from McGregor's 13-second scorching of Aldo, Dos Anjos took just 66 seconds to devour Donald Cerrone.
"McGregor is a fighter that we truly believe we can beat," Dos Anjos' coach Rafael Cordeiro said. "He's coming from a lower division. I bet Rafael will finish him in a brutal way."
Yet the move up from 145lbs to 155lbs only shapes to do McGregor favours given he has long laboured with the cut to featherweight. Hours after the fight was announced, his own coach John Kavanagh predicted another short outing in the octagon, saying the fight wouldn't last the first round.
Apart from the history on the line, a second belt would also significantly cocoon McGregor from the potential first defeat that so many expect would burst his bubble.
Whether the travelling Irish can again top 10,000 for this latest instalment remains doubtful. A third Vegas fight in a row, this one almost falls between stools, neither a high summer nor festive splurge like the most recent title fights.
Some may also look to save themselves for what is widely expected to follow - a return to featherweight to defend that title against Frankie Edgar at the promised summer extravaganza at UFC 200. Nonetheless, to doubt McGregor's appeal has proven folly before.
"You've seen Conor on salads... now watch what he is like on steak," was Kavanagh's sweet sound bite in his column for The 42, before he hinted at another improbable move up in the weights.
"And maybe the pursuit of belts won’t stop there either... I would not be at all surprised if we’re preparing to go for a third belt this time next year."
Such a move would, again, be unprecedented but the appetite, again, is insatiable. Incredibly, triumph in March would secure a fifth belt in the space of ten professional fights for McGregor.
All the belts, all the records, all the shots. And still it all comes down to winning. That's the bottom line.
