Mere weeks after presenting himself as a newly mellow zen master, Conor McGregor was back to the more recognisable 'Manic Mac' version in Las Vegas on Wednesday as he lit the fires for his March 5 showdown with UFC lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos.
Having told the world that his stunning knockout of featherweight king Jose Aldo Junior last month was all down to his mastery of timing, McGregor showed up over a half hour late for the UFC 197 press conference at the MGM Grand.
In trademark style, however, he made up for lost time in the next 40 minutes, among a range of offerings, calling Dos Anjos a traitor to Brazil, insisting he and Jesus are back on good terms, comparing himself to Mexican drug lord El Chapo and insisting he could move up another weight division before the year was out.
"I do not wear watches to tell the time. I apologise," said the featherweight champion as he settled in, a hulk of gold hanging off one wrist. "I chose this [fight] because I came into this promotion as a two-weight world champion. This man across from me. He has nothing else to offer me except for that gold belt.
"I'm an active champion. I will fight in many weight divisions. I like the sound of that 170 title as well. I feel I can take down them three gold belts. I feel I can do it by the year's end. 2015 was my year. This year is also my year. Every year is my f***ing year."
"This guy, in Brazil lingo, is a gringo. That's the truth. Why are your kids named Bob and Donald?"
McGregor was already trending earlier on Wednesday after LeBron James became the latest big-name US sports figure to point to the fighter's motivational words as inspiration in the wake of a humbling at the hands of the Golden State Warriors earlier this week.
You'd have to think it's pretty unlikely, however, that the Cleveland Cavaliers star will be taking to Instagram to quote many snippets of McGregor's offerings here.
The Notorious one, who will be attempting to become the first UFC fighter to ever hold two belts simultaneously when he fights Dos Anjos, got personal early and often with his next opponent, born and raised in Rio de Janeiro but now living permanently in California.
"Jose Aldo is the one true champion of Brazil," he said. "We're sending Rafael on a four-day media run throughout Brazil and I have to book him a hotel in his own country. He ran from the country of Brazil, he didn't trust his own. This guy, in Brazil lingo, is a gringo. That's the truth. Why are your kids named Bob and Donald?
"On March 5 I will behead RDA and carry his head through Rio streets. It will become a national holiday I imagine. I see a true champion in Jose. I see a man here who doesn't represent the people of Brazil like he should. He brings the name of the country down and so I will bring the name back up."
McGregor finished that barb with a whoop of "viva la Brazil", Dos Anjos quickly pointing to the error in the Dubliner's ways.
"First of all the guy is speaking Spanish. We don't speak Spanish, we speak Portuguese. Learn your Portuguese," he said, the prompt for McGregor's apparently reasoned response that "I'm dressed like El Chapo in his prime. I'm running the company like a wise guy in his prime. I am a multi-cultural man."
Dos Anjos took issue with McGregor's joke last month that such was his dominance in the octagon, he could take down Jesus too.
"I think when a guy says something like that he has no respect for anybody," said the devout fighter. "On March 5 he will feel what a single tool in Jesus's hands can do."
McGregor's response was rapid and quickly moved into the upper ranks of Notoriousisms: "Me and Jesus are cool. I'm cool with all the gods. Gods recognise gods."
As has been the case for McGregor's previous two Las Vegas outings, another world title fight has been relegated to secondary in his presence. At UFC 197 it will be Holly Holm and Miesha Tate who'll play curtain-raisers as Holm makes the first defence of the bantamweight belt she unceremoniously stripped from Ronda Rousey in November. Yesterday the pair were largely left as onlookers as McGregor and Dos Anjos dominated proceedings.
"I'd love to beat the ugly out of him and drag him into the second or third but I feel like I will do him in under one minute."
Asked who would dominate in the octagon in six weeks, both men pointed to themselves, the 31-year-old Dos Anjos insisted that he wouldn't 'Rush in' like Jose Aldo but drag McGregor into the 'third or fourth and make him bleed'. McGregor insisted the next one, like many that have gone before, won't last very long.
"He is very sloppy, his shot selection very poor, he has a tenseness in his body when he lulls," he said. "He will take some strikes in there very early. He dips, he's like a slower, sloppier, more stuffed version of Jose Aldo. I will guide him on to some strikes and it will be another KO. I'd love to beat the ugly out of him and drag him into the second or third but I feel like I will do him in under one minute."
After the March bout, McGregor is likely to move back down to featherweight to defend that strap at the sport's summer highlight, UFC 200, meaning another year will likely pass without the Dublin defence that has for so long been mooted coming to fruition.
"I mean, I don't know. I do crave my stadium fight in Dublin but I have to just roll with punches," said McGregor.
"It's an operation. There are limitations. They've pulled concerts from the venue previously. It's a risk to do something like that. I will get back to Dublin [eventually]. This is a marathon, not a sprint. I look forward to having my country lift up with a stadium show but it is a work in process."
In the meantime, like clockwork, the show rolls on.
