McGregor compares himself to both main characters of Rocky III

Ever since the original Rocky movies were released, professional fighters around the world have compared themselves to characters from the series.

Most fighters, of course, draw parallels between themselves and the main character. Every so often, there will be a fighter who steps away from the norm and says they are more like one of the villains.

Conor McGregor has outgrown single comparisons. During a conference call to promote his Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight unification title bout against Jose Aldo in the main event of UFC 194 at MGM on Saturday, McGregor said he is like both stars of the third installment.

"I recently I watched Rocky III, and you watch Rocky III, at the start of it, he has a mansion, he's got seven cars, he's got this like robot that brings him coffee and stuff, and he's doing all these ads and talk shows and he's getting sloppy and lazy," McGregor said. "Meanwhile Clubber Lang is in a dark alleyway sprinting, throwing shots, visualizing and I kind of smiled watching that because I'm like Rocky in that I have the big houses, I have the cars, I have the robots bringing me coffee every morning, but then at the same time I'm also like Clubber Lang training.

"I'm training like Clubber but I'm living like Rocky so I think I have a perfect balance right now."

McGregor quickly became a star by combining dominant performances inside the cage with immense verbal skills outside of it.

He has often been compared to Ronda Rousey, who suffered a shocking defeat to Holly Holm last month in Australia. Many pundits have tried to pin the loss on all of the attention and obligations Rousey had outside the cage.

McGregor believes he can avoid the same fate.

"With Ronda, she does even more in reality than me, but I feel maybe there was some other issues, there were personal issues, there was a lot on display I feel with that one, and for me I just handle my own business," he said. "It's part of the game. Right now tonight I'm going to head to do the Jimmy Kimmel show, then after that I head back to my gym to do some positional sparring tonight and carry on. It's business as usual. This is the life I've created, and there's no one better at this.

"Maybe Ronda might have got a little bit too much into the media and maybe didn't focus as much on her training in that current time. But for me, I have a perfect balance. I'm living good and I'm training hard."

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