The Conor McGregor hype machine does not sleep. It takes brief naps. Following his win at UFC 193, McGregor has rarely been far from the headlines. Confirmation of McGregor vs Dos Anjos last night was greeted by an immediate instagram blast from the Crumliner, with taunts of 'American Gringo' and threats of beheading aimed in the direction of RDA. Dos Anjos camp fired back immediately, with an instagram comment at McGregor that was quickly deleted. It says a lot about how the Dos Anjos camp are looking to attack McGregor in the public forum.
You see a photo of McGregor below a photo of what looks like a McGregor impersonator. Yet this is not a McGregor clone. It is in fact a male model who lives in Ontario named Josh Mario John. When one reaches back into Jose Mario John's social media profile, you realise in fact that the Canadian model has been sporting the exact same 'McGregor look' for as long as McGregor, and in fact, longer.
Tattoowise, McGregor has been sporting the SBG gorilla on his chest since 2013 and a tiger since last April.
If you see the Tiger it's too late. You're food. pic.twitter.com/uAnC2cB0tV
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 14, 2015
Scroll back through John's instagram feed and you see the more handsome Canadian sporting a very similar aesthetic to McGregor. John describes himself on tattoo blogs as a 24-year-old who works in child welfare with a masters degree in psychology. We cannot find him making any reference to McGregor. It's hard to know how McGregor could have found pictures of John but intentionally or not, he has slowly evolved into something like a physical clone of the tattoo model over the last two years.
A photo posted by JOSH MARIO JOHN (@spizoiky) on
A photo posted by JOSH MARIO JOHN (@spizoiky) on
This 'swaggerjacking' has been the subject of speculation on the mma forums over the last year. On the surface, of course, none of this matters. Style is borrowed and stolen every day. But this could count for something in social media wars that will eventually be fought between the two camps in the run-up to UFC 197. It will be interesting to see if RDA's camp continue to prod at McGregor's authenticity by posting photos of his doppelganger.
