Conor McGregor and Rafael dos Anjos will get chance to go face to face tonight for the first time since their headline fight at UFC 197 was announced. It may seem like we're still getting over UFC 194 and all the hype that went with it but with a little over six weeks to go, it's time for the UFC to wheel out that hype machine all over again.
The first press conference for UFC 197 will take place at 7 o'clock Irish time tonight and you'll be able to follow it here on Balls.ie as soon as things kick off at the MGM Grand. Dana White, Holly Holm and Meisha Tate will all be in attendance but in reality, all the interest surrounds McGregor and the start of his phoney war ahead of the real deal on March 5th.
The UFC 197 Press Conference takes place tomorrow at the MGM Grand.
Open and Free to the Public. 11am PT. pic.twitter.com/N3mPjS9tPi— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) January 20, 2016
There's any number of highlight reels out there to help jog your memory should you need them but the featherweight champ's ability to thoroughly wind up his opponents in these situations has been given a near legendary status of its own.
The mind games started as soon as the fight was announced with McGregor attempting to paint Dos Anjos as a 'traitor' who abandoned Brazil by moving to America. He went on to state that he would "behead the 'American Gringo' Rafael Dos Anjos, in the name of La Brasilia".
Not surprisingly, Dos Anjos was having none of that but it may be a different situation when they get in the same room tonight. He's a cool customer but we said that about Jose Aldo as well. The former featherweight champ probably didn't deal with the mental barrage that McGregor threw at him as well as he could have so all eyes will be on Dos Anjos tonight to see what effect the Dubliner's trash talking will have on him.
And even if the Brazilian deals with it perfectly, it's all a helpful sideshow to sell the fight at the end of the day. They'll come out, some fairly standard questions will be asked and McGregor will do his thing. Not that we're complaining of course. The last time they were in the same room together at the Go Big press conference back in September, McGregor managed to sell this fight before anyone was really talking about it.
