When Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather finally take to the ring in Las Vegas later this month, it will mark one of the most watched sporting events directly involving an Irish sportsperson ever.
One person, however, is unlikely to be watching along with the rest of us; Ireland's sports minister Shane Ross.
Having previously spoken of his distaste for some of MMA's more 'disturbing' elements, Ross revealed to The Journal that he is not expecting to watch McGregor's professional boxing debut:
I probably won’t. I don’t know. I just might miss out on the McGregor one, I am not a fan.
Of McGregor's original fighting discipline, Ross has advocated the need to regulate the sport within Ireland. Following the death of Joao Carvalho, an MMA fighter who died during a Total Extreme Fighting event in April 2016, Ross suggested that if such events were to continue in Ireland,
the rules should ensure that there is an absolute absence of brutality or savagery or anything like it.
The violent theme was not restricted to mixed martial arts alone however. Ross also believes that the increasing physicality of rugby is something that needs to be addressed:
I hope it doesn’t take some awful accident for us to wake up to the fact the sport is getting rougher.
The minister did concede however that in spite of such concerns, he will be attending games during the Women's Rugby World Cup.
