Conor McGregor’s Netflix doc to show unseen and ‘intimate’ side of star and aftermath of Khabib bout ahead of UFC return
THE entire mixed martial arts world is waiting with bated breath for the latest documentary on the biggest star in the history of the sport – Conor McGregor.
On Wednesday, Netflix will release the eagerly-anticipated McGregor Forever – a four-part docuseries on the UFC‘s poster boy.
The project, which was produced by the renowned Religion of Sports, was first mooted back in 2018 – although the wheels only got in motion the following year.
The two previous documentaries on The Notorious have given a unique insight into perhaps the most boisterous and bombastic fighter in combat sports.
And McGregor Forever is no different.
But unlike its predecessors, it peels back the many layers – including the family side – of arguably the most divisive fighter in MMA.
Director Gotham Chopra told SunSport: “We were going to tell a comeback story, but it turned into something with a lot more depth than that.
“With Conor, there’s this public person and this one-man carnival act that’s out there. But there is also this kind of reflective and self-aware, thoughtful and articulate man inside there.
“He’s a great character. And as a subject, I don’t want to say he’s easy, but [he’s] easy to story tell around.”
He added: ” It’s been interesting [over the last four years] to see all the different layers to him. And the doc definitely explores quite a bit of that.”
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Much of McGregor Forever will focus on the Dubliner’s recent setbacks in the octagon – which have included defeats to bitter rival Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dustin Poirier.
Chorpa said: “Losing, from a storytelling perspective, brings more tension, brings more perspective, brings more conflict and more reflection.
“That, in a way, became more interesting from a storytelling point of view. Like, ‘How is Conor and how is everyone around him going to deal with these things?'”
He continued: “Obviously, there has been a bunch of losing in the last few years with the Poirier fights and the Khabib one before that.
“The UFC and the world make a big deal when Conor loses, but Conor doesn’t. He’s like, ‘Losing is part of the game. You don’t do this without losing.’
“He’s not precious about it. And you can see him in those moments, obviously, he’s emotional as nobody likes to lose, but he pretty quickly is like going back to that mad scientist [mode].
“And like, ‘How can I use this as the catapult to the next thing? What do I need to change? What did I do wrong?'”
The backstage aftermath of McGregor’s infamous UFC 229 showdown with Nurmagomedov also features prominently.
Chopra revealed: “There’s this great scene after the Khabib fight where he is in the dressing room in the aftermath he had tapped out and there was chaos in that fight.
“Dana White comes into the dressing room and he’s kind of like talking about it to Conor and he’s like, ‘Where you surprised about that?’
“And Conor couldn’t be bothered. He goes, ‘That’s handbags’ which is an expression he uses. ‘I lost the fight and that’s that.'”
Religion of Sports has produced documentaries on the likes of Tom Brady, Steph Curry and Russell Westbrook.
Brady, Curry and Westbrook are all enigmas in their own right, although Chopra believes sees similarities between McGregor and the aforementioned trio.
He said: “What’s similar is their voracious ambition and willingness to do the work – there’s no compromise. Not only that, he’s willing to go above and beyond.
“I’ve been to his training sessions and there was never a moment where he was like, ‘I’m kind of tired, let’s wrap an hour earlier.’ It’s quite the opposite.
“Two hours turns into four hours or six hours. He’s like this mad scientist in his sparring sessions, being like, ‘Okay, how can I get better at this? How do I improve that?’
“That is what I’ve seen with Tom Brady and his throwing motion or Steph Curry and his shooting.”
McGregor seldom lets outsiders into his personal and family life, although longtime videographer Darragh McCarthy was granted permission to capture a side of the former two-division champion. rarely seen by cameras.
Chopra said: “There’s really intimate stuff. It’s not just in and around his training and fight career, it’s around his gender reveal for his baby.
There’s really intimate stuff. It’s not just in and around his training and fight career, it’s around his gender reveal for his baby.
Gotham Chopra, McGregor Forever director
“At home, there was an intimacy there that Darragh was able to capture and access through his relationship with Conor.
“And that gave us, candidly, hours and hours of footage to help fill out the story.”
McCarthy also captured the fallout from McGregor’s ill-fated trilogy fight with Poirier, in which he suffered a horrific broken leg.
And their close relationship allowed a hospital-bed-bound McGregor to open up on potentially having his career taken away from him just hours after snapping his left leg,
Chopra said: “That was him [McCarthy] him in the hospital shooting that. And that’s a five-year relationship which enabled Conor to be very comfortable and vulnerable.”
With the exception of the pandemic, chronicling McGregor’s journey over the last four years was a source of great pleasure for Chopra.
Although working with the Irishman was quite the experience with him and his crew.
He said: “As one of his trainers, Doc, said, and I think it’s in one of the trailers released, ‘Reasonable men have never archived anything. Conor is a very unreasonable man.’
“I experienced that over three-and-a-half years. A hard guy and an even harder guy to wrangle. He’s all over the world literally and he’s all over the place figuratively.
“It’s not been easy. And yet, I’ve been watching it back now that it’s going up on Netflix and I’m like, ‘Yeah, he’s fascinating.’
“It’s fascinating watching him. There is all this stuff out in the world and people have strong opinions on him and there are a lot of people around him.
“And yet, he still is an enigma. So in that sense, it was really fun and inspiring even because of that ability he has to pick himself all the time.”
Having worked on the documentary for the best part of four years, Chorpa hopes it will add nuance to the global McGregor conversation.
He said: “Hopefully, this documentary captures something that I said before: that he’s a fighter. And I don’t just mean that literally and figuratively and from losses and that.
“You go back to his early career, he had this vision for himself even while he was struggling through life and the place he came from.
“But his willingness to go and pick himself up and go do the work – even though it seemingly happened overnight.
“The hours, weeks and months of hard work. There’s no compromise with the guy – he puts in the work.
“What I think is interesting about the doc is there’s the showman and carnival as I said before, but now there’s this father and a human being [for the world to see].”