Conor McGregor’s historic UFC career has always been a mix of victories and crushing heartbreak. Perhaps his most devastating disappointment came at UFC 329, when his highly anticipated return to the Octagon after a five-year hiatus ended in just 69 seconds due to an unexpected knee injury against Max Holloway.
Yet, even when his fighting luck runs out, “The Notorious” never disappoints with a microphone in his hand. While the MMA community widely considers him arguably the best entertainer in promotional history, boxing icon Tyson Fury recently dropped a shocking claim, insisting he is the real reason McGregor is so good on the mic.
Tyson Fury Claims He Taught Conor McGregor to Trash Talk
Tyson Fury is always quick to brag about his talking skills, but his latest comments come at a messy time in his own career. His planned November fight with Anthony Joshua is on the brink of collapse over a dispute about money and venues.
The irony? Taking a shot at McGregor seems like a distraction for Fury, who is currently using his microphone skills to either save or destroy the biggest matchup in British boxing history. But he took the shot and claimed he was McGregor’s trash-talking teacher.
In an interview with ALF Global, the two-time heavyweight world champion said, “I taught him. He copied me. He copied my style”. Fury doubled down on his own credentials first, adding, “Talking is what I do best. If there was world championships for talking, I’d be the undisputed champion.”
He then framed the trash talk as a business tool rather than a mental warfare tactic. “I’ve been talking s–t from the beginning, a long time. I don’t do it to get in their heads. Boxing is a show business. Boxing is Hollywood. Boxing is a movie. The fans have to be entertained, so when they tune in and pay pay-per-view to watch Tyson Fury fight, press conference build-up, they’re going to see a show. That’s why they come to see. It’s going to be a crazy show, something’s going to happen. It’s like a circus.”
However, this isn’t the first time Fury has made such a bold claim about the two-division UFC champion.
A Decade-Long Comparison Between Conor McGregor and Tyson Fury
Back in 2015 on The MMA Hour, Fury highlighted that they looked the same, claiming, “All of a sudden, he starts copying me. This Conor McGregor guy. I grew a big beard, he grew a big beard. I talk bulls–t about everybody, he starts talking bulls–t.”
Surprisingly, both fighters won their first world titles almost simultaneously in late 2015. Fury beat Wladimir Klitschko for the heavyweight boxing belts, and just two weeks later, McGregor knocked out Jose Aldo in 13 seconds for the UFC featherweight title. Both of them wore wild outfits and traded nonstop trash talk to turn their fights into massive global events.
However, Fury did draw one line between his approach and McGregor’s. “I never talk about the fighter’s family,” he said, a boundary McGregor has crossed more than once, most notably during his rivalries with Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dustin Poirier.
