Four months ago, Conor McGregor witnessed first-hand his SBG teammate Charlie Ward stop Portuguese fighter Joao Carvalho in the third round of a rip-roaring Total Extreme Fighting contest. The 28-year-old Carvalho was subsequently rushed to Beaumount Hospital having suffered significant head trauma following successive blows on the canvas. He died 48 hours later.
It was a tragedy which rocked the enitre sport of MMA - particularly in Ireland, where many remain adamant that it's not a sport at all. But it also rocked Dublin's UFC featherweight champion, who has since admitted that the effect of Carvalho's death had a role to play in Retirement-gate and his rather bizarre behaviour in the lead-up to UFC 200 - a card from which he would eventually be removed.
McGregor is on the cover of September's Men's Health magazine, and in a Daily Mail sneak peak of the interview, the Crumlin man elaborated on how Carvalho's untimely passing affected him - and continues to affect him - mentally:
How do I feel? How would you feel?
It's fucked up. I wasn't just watching that fight. I helped train a guy to kill someone, and then someone wound up dying.
This is a fucking dangerous game. People call it a sport, but it's fighting. I'm just making sure it ain't me. And that's fucked up.
The Men's Health interviewer explains how McGregor pauses for thought, before adding:
Damn. I still can't believe that kid is dead.
