Bravado nothing new for McGregor

Breakout star Conor McGregor has been telling everyone who would listen that he would win the featherweight belt since the night he debuted in the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2013.

Now that he’s on the verge of fulfilling the prophecy, the 26-year-old Irish kickboxer doesn’t sound like he cares how long he holds on to the belt.

“I’ll expect everyone in the top 10 of the featherweight division to line up and beg for forgiveness and beg to be pardoned,” he said Monday at Red Rock Resort. “If they do that, I will hand the featherweight belt back and move up to (lightweight).”

The bravado is nothing new for McGregor, who will challenge longtime champ Jose Aldo for the title in the main event of UFC 189 on July 11 at the MGM Grand Garden.

His outspoken and personable qualities have led his critics to say he has received more opportunities than he has earned.

He has yet to fight an opponent ranked in the top five, but McGregor is 5-0 with four knockouts in the UFC.

“They think it’s a joke and then KO after KO after KO after KO,” he said.

McGregor and Aldo are on an international press tour to promote the event. The first stop was in Aldo’s home country of Brazil over the weekend. McGregor said he could tell he was going to win the fight.

“Fear has a strong stench, and he is reeking of it. I simply see fear,” he said of his interactions with the champion. “His eyes turn to glass.

“He said absolutely nothing to me. He had his opportunity and said nothing.”

It’s a reaction McGregor said he knows well.

“There’s never been nobody like me, and he’s never fought nobody like me,” he said. “It’s a completely different experience when you fight me. When you fight me, there’s a pressure bubble that surrounds people, and then you’ve got me in your face ready to take your head off.

“People crumble under it, and everybody has crumbled under it. And when I came face to face with him, he crumbled.”

McGregor also used the opportunity to call into question the legitimacy of Aldo’s dominant run as champion, particularly the durability he showed in a tough win over Chad Mendes in October.

“Thankfully we are in a new age of the sport,” McGregor said of the increased drug testing that is being phased in by the UFC. “Thankfully, the (Nevada Athletic Commission) is doing out-of-competition testing (for this fight). We are not in Brazil now.”

McGregor was also sure to point out his character is all-natural. He insists his bluster is not about marketing — he’s just being himself.

“It’s no character. It’s who I am,” he said. “I speak the truth. I like to have a little bit of fun as well, but if the cameras are here or not, I’m still the same.”

Tickets for the event, which includes a welterweight title fight between Rory MacDonald and champion Robbie Lawler, go on sale Friday.

■ MAIA WANTS BELT — After handing Ryan LaFlare the first loss of his career in the main event of a UFC card in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday night, veteran welterweight Demian Maia has his eyes on a major prize.

The 37-year-old Brazilian wants one more chance to fight for a UFC title before his career is done. Maia unsuccessfully challenged Anderson Silva for the middleweight belt in 2010 and dropped to welterweight in 2012.

He has won two straight fights since dropping a pair of bouts.

“I know I have a few years left in my career, and I want to have great years in these fights that are left for me, to have the chance to fight for the belt once again,” he said.

■ LOMBARD DISCIPLINED — UFC welterweight contender Hector Lombard was suspended for one year and fined more than $70,000 by the Nevada Athletic Commission on Monday because of a failed steroid test.

Lombard tested positive for steroids after his win over Josh Burkman at UFC 182 on Jan. 3.

The former Olympic judo competitor for Cuba apologized for the transgression when he appeared at Monday’s NAC meeting, saying he had never in his Olympic or fighting career previously failed a drug test.

Lombard cited pills he took the week of the fight to help treat the flu for the test result.

With the suspension, which is retroactive to the date of the fight, his victory was overturned to a no-contest, and he was fined his win bonus of $53,000 and one-third of his $53,000 fight purse.

He will be required to submit a clean sample before being granted a license to fight in Nevada again.

■ BELFORT LICENSED — UFC middleweight contender Vitor Belfort was granted a license by the NAC during Monday’s meeting, clearing the way for him to challenge Chris Weidman for the middleweight title in the main event of UFC 187 at the MGM Grand on May 23.

Belfort tested positive for steroids in 2006 and had been competing under a therapeutic-use exemption for testosterone replacement therapy until the treatment was banned in combat sports in 2014.

He admitted a voluntary out-of-competition test last year showed elevated levels of testosterone but has undergone at least five tests from the NAC since that time and has been officially cleared by the commission to fight.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj.