As a devoted believer in the primacy of the mental side of sport, Conor McGregor naturally believes he had the fight won well before he decked him with a ferocious hit towards the end of the second round.
Only the simple minded believe that was the moment he had the fight won.
It was, in fact, it was his opponent's movements at the opening seconds of the fight which convinced McGregor he had the whole thing won - when Mendes chose to ignore Willie John McBride's famous advice and went ahead and took the first backward step.
When we were coming to the weigh-in, I just wanted to go face to face. Let's go face to face and square-off here. But he was bouncing around and clapping his hands.
Dana was separating us and I said, 'Let us come face to face. Let him stand here and look me in the eye'.
It didn't happen so we left the stage and I thought 'He's enjoying this. He's playing the game. He doesn't... this is no game here'.
I said to myself after the weigh-ins, 'Tomorrow night there will be no bouncing around. We're going to be face to face and we will see then'.
So, when we came face to face, I said to him, 'Let's see who takes a back step now. Let's see who takes the first back step'.
I marched forward and he took the first back step.
That was the fight.
The rest was just a formality.
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