Introspective Conor McGregor admits he ‘obviously’ got caught up in his own fame

Conor McGregor still isn’t ready to apologize for past actions ahead of his return to competition in the main event of UFC 329 at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night.

But the Irish superstar and former two-division world champion, who claims he has been on a spiritual journey the last year, is more contemplative than ever.

“I’m thankful for the lessons I’ve learned,” he said at Wednesday’s media day. “My job is to honor the position God has put me in and to not disrespect it. And that’s where I’m at. I’m thankful for the lessons I have learned.”

It’s a long way from one of his most infamous post-fight interviews when McGregor grabbed the microphone to apologize to “absolutely nobody.”

McGregor, 37, will be competing for the first time in more than five years when he takes on Max Holloway in a welterweight bout on Saturday. McGregor scored a unanimous decision in their first fight in 2013, when both were featherweights and McGregor wasn’t yet the international icon he has become.

He went as far as he has on Wednesday in admitting he got swept away in his own fame, citing the launching of his liquor company as a turning point after he had won UFC belts in two weight classes and banked one of the biggest paydays in combat sports history for boxing Floyd Mayweather Jr.

“Obviously,” he said of whether fame and success changed him. “I launched an Irish whiskey. I didn’t drink heavily, if at all, at that time of my life. I was an athlete at the top of my game. Next thing you know, thousands upon thousands of bottles in my garage. Sell this, Conor. OK I’d leave my property with two bottles under my arm and that was it.

“I was caught. And I wasn’t used to it. And that’s it. God gave me these lessons. That’s it. I was trapped and caught, and it is what it is.”

The past few years have seen McGregor involved in multiple controversies and legal issues. He briefly launched a bid for Ireland only to be strongly rebuked by a public that has largely turned against him in his home country.

By far the most serious of his indiscretions involved a rape case in which he was found civilly liable in 2024, though prosecutors had declined to charge him criminally.

McGregor insists he will still be vindicated.

“I’m an innocent man, and I’ll stand for my innocence until the day I go out,” he said. “That is still a situation where I fight. There’s a reason it didn’t go where it went and went to a civil trial. It is what it is. It stings deep. I continue to fight. I know the truth, and I know that lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.

“And I know that anything born in darkness will soon come to light. And I trust in God that it’s coming. You best believe it’s coming. And I look very, very forward to that day.”

It has been an otherwise innocuous buildup for a McGregor fight with little drama between him and Holloway, a far cry from the utter madness that often preceded his fights before the layoff.

McGregor said he’s fine with that for his return fight, though he has prepared himself for anything.

“Now I am calm,” he said. “I’m centered for sure. Probably more than I’ve ever been, and I’m very happy with that. I’m very happy with the work I have put into myself and the people that have helped me. And I’m in a great space. But bring on the chaos, baby. I’m calm in the chaos, comfortable in the uncomfortable.”