Former broadcast partners Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith are reuniting from afar in a joint effort in blasting Conor McGregor for his behavior at UFC 264.
Conor McGregor has been getting hit with criticism from all angles for his Octagon interview at UFC 264 that came after the Irish superstar broke his tibia in the first round, resulting in a TKO win (doctor’s stoppage) for Dustin Poirier.
The critic who holds the largest platform was ESPN First Take’s Stephen A. Smith, who characterized McGregor’s response to defeat as “tasteless, classless behavior,” referring mostly to McGregor insulting Dustin Poirier’s wife after the bout.
Now, former co-host of First Take, Skip Bayless, also chimed in on his program FS1 Undisputed. Bayless started the night as a big supporter of Conor McGregor, but he ended the night on Team Poirier after watching how McGregor handled defeat.
“For me, as entertaining as I found Conor pre-fights and post-fights in the past, this went to disgusting to me. This went completely over the edge into unwatchable,” Bayless said. “Because he’s still sitting there up against the side of the cage screaming about his wife, screaming insults.
“Well, now, you’ve lost all class and dignity, whatever shred you had left of that. And now I’m to the old cliché about the empty barrel that makes the most noise. And it’s an empty barrel of Proper Twelve.”
They say there is no such thing as bad publicity, but that theory is currently being put to the test for McGregor’s brand in the aftermath of UFC 264. Nevertheless, the generational superstar has passed every test in the past with flying colors, such as punching an elderly man in a bar, smashing a citizen’s cell phone into pieces, and endangering his colleagues by smashing in a bus window with a dolly, etc.
That being said, being the subject of ridicule of the mainstream sports media and even millions of people might do little to nothing in stopping the seemingly indestructible star power held by the man who is truly living up to his “Notorious” moniker.
