Conor McGregor dreamed of football career before "conflicts" turned him to MMA

Don’t miss a thing by getting the Daily Star’s biggest headlines straight to your inbox!

In an interview from December 2012 recently shared by BT Sport, UFC megastar Conor McGregor claimed that his first dream was to be a football player before “conflicts” turned him towards a life of fighting.

The interview took place just a few weeks before the Irishman’s lightweight title fight at Cage Warriors 51 and featured a 24-year-old McGregor who first discussed where his love of combat came from.

“I don’t know to be honest. Sometimes I do think that in my head, I think ‘Why am I doing this?’

“I don’t know. I honestly couldn’t tell you. I just always liked combat and I liked action films. I guess coming from where I come from, it was always important whether you could fight, you know what I mean."

McGregor, who has previously stated that he is a lifelong fan of Manchester United, went on to state that like most other kids from Ireland, his first goal was to become a professional football player.

“That was one thing growing up. It was like how good you were at fighting and how good you were at playing football. They were the two things that seemed to be important, you know.”

“When I was growing up, I probably just wanted to play football. That was my first dream, I used to dream about being a footballer. I remember when I was like 10 years old, I used to go out on my own and kick the ball around and that was my dream."

Do you think Conor McGregor will defeat Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 this weekend? Let us know in the comments section below.

However, as McGregor grew up his passion for football dwindled and it became more important for him to learn some self-defense. From there, a young McGregor took to boxing and continued his training while also undertaking a plumbing apprenticeship.

He later decided that wasn’t for him and committed to MMA training full-time.

“As you get older, maybe like having conflicts with people. People saying things, or being put in situations where you need to defend yourself. That’s probably why I started, you know. To just be able to defend myself if something did happen.

“Again, I don’t know why I’m doing this. But I’m doing it and that’s all I know. I’m doing it better than anyone’s ever done it. That’s all I know.”

McGregor was then asked what the future held and as he has often done throughout his UFC career, the Notorious predicted the future and claimed that he would defeat Ivan Buchinger to become a Cage Warriors two-weight champion.

“This [championship belt] is the reward for sacrifice. This and the twin [belt] that I’m going to get on New Year’s Eve. Then the fat pay cheques come with the UFC hopefully.

“I definitely see a twin [belt] on my other shoulder. Then who knows, I’ve just got to keep positive and believe in myself and put the hours in the gym. After that, the sky’s the limit. Who knows what’s around the corner? I could be in the UFC and you never know where it could end.

“Just got to keep positive, keep happy and do what you love doing. F**k everything else, you know.

Don't miss a thing with our football updates!

Want to be on the ball with all of the latest football news?

Well then sign up for the brilliant Daily Star football email newsletter!

From the latest transfer news to the agenda-setting stories, get it all in your email inbox – don't miss a thing.

How do you sign up?

It only takes a matter of seconds.

Simply type your email address into the box at the top of this article and hit 'subscribe'.

And that's it, job done. You'll receive an email with all of the top news stories every single morning.

You can find out more information on our email newsletter on this link here.

Conor McGregor is set to meet Dustin Poirier in a trilogy bout at UFC 264 this weekend, just six months after the Irishman was defeated by the Diamond at UFC 257 via second-round knockout.

• Conor Mcgregor
• UFC

Source: Read Full Article