Paul Hughes' recent career trajectory couldn't have been better.
Like McGregor, Irishman Bobby King holds one Cage Warriors world title (two in McGregor's case), and had a successful Bellator/PFL debut at the 3Arena in Dublin on June 22, stopping American Bobby King with a ferocious strike before the end of the second round.
Watching on from cageside was Conor McGregor, whose achievements Hughes is trying to emulate, and while Hughes will be gunning for lightweight gold in his new home (and the PFL's $1 million in season prize money), “Big News” stepped up to the microphone in the Irish capital last month to pay tribute to the man who helped make the sport boom in the Emerald Isle.
“It came from my heart,” Hughes told Ariel Helwani during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour. Mixed Martial Arts.
“group [Hardy] “He asked me, 'What's it like having Conor McGregor here?' I just saw him, he came up to the cage and I was looking at him and I just spoke from my heart. That's the reality. I'm just speaking the truth. He's broken down the mental barriers for young guys like us, especially coming from the island of Ireland.”
The crowning of Ireland's next big thing in mixed martial arts came nearly a decade after McGregor himself became a star in the same arena, knocking out Diego Brandao in the first round and declaring the now-infamous line after the fight (again, to Dan Hardy) that Irish fighters were ready to “take over.”
“Exactly 10 years earlier he was fighting Brandao in the same arena, and that was the beginning of his rise and the beginning of changing Irish MMA forever,” Hughes explained. “Then 10 years later he inspired me to co-main event in the same arena, in the first ever major global show, and I was cageside with him. And it only felt right to thank him, because it was true.”
