Conor McGregor Releases Tongue-In-Cheek Statement On Skipping Awards Show

Conor McGregor was the second most searched sporting personality in Ireland (based on Google search queries), second only to Michael Schumacher, and the highest ranked Irish athlete in 2014. Huge stateside as well, he's the biggest in-house star the UFC has developed in years (as opposed to Brock Lesnar coming from the WWE or Ronda Rousey from Strikeforce). Despite his popularity and success in the octagon, however, he failed to receive a nomination at national broadcaster RTE's year end awards. Regardless of the lack of a nomination, many expected him to still turn up at the awards show, especially since he has a deal with RTE for a six-part mini-series chronicling his rise to the top of the sport. However, McGregor opted to skip the event, and released a typically 'Notorious' statement explaining why:

I appreciate the curiosity about my absence from these 'Sport Awards'. Credit with RTE however, is not what I seek. It is cash. And as Executive Producer of my 6-part series 'NOTORIOUS', airing January 26th, cash is what they pay. If it's PURE Sport you want though. The ORIGINAL sport of the Human Race. The Sport of Unarmed Combat. The Sport of Survival. The Sport before the term 'Sport' was even created... Catch 'UFC Fight Night Boston: McGregor - Vs - Who gives a f--- we are still watching.' LIVE and EXCLUSIVE to Setanta Sports and 3e Sports respectively. This coming January 18th. Conor Bless.

The "Who gives a f---" in that title is, of course, eighth ranked featherweight Dennis Siver. Should McGregor get past Siver at UFC Fight Night 59 he's looking at the next featherweight title shot against Jose Aldo, who seems to have warmed to the idea of fighting McGregor, no doubt knowing it will help his bank account - a sore spot for the Brazilian champ these days.