Connor McGregor might be all about taking his opponent down in the ring, but outside of it, he’s human just like the rest of us, and when he took the time to mention the passing of one of his fans during an interview, that was abundantly clear.
McGregor was speaking about the death of Brendan McGlone, who initially contacted the fighter through the Make-A-Wish-Foundation.
He claimed:
What happened was I got a phone call from a person in the UFC, someone from the Make-A-Wish Foundation reached out to them.
This kid from Ireland, he has leukemia and it was his final wish. I don’t know. They were saying, ‘This is probably his last wish and his last wish is to talk on the phone to you.
I rang the kid and we talked for a long, long time. I talked with his friends in the hospital, his family.
@TheNotoriousMMA thanks for the call!!! Made my day pic.twitter.com/5dNhZtprKO
— Brendan Mcglone (@mcglone_brendan) June 9, 2015
Sadly, Brendan McGlone passed away earlier in the week, at only 14 years old, and it clearly had a profound effect on McGregor, who spoke about how the 14 year old influenced him and how their phone conversations had impacted his life.
It’s seriously emotional stuff and a much softer side to McGregor than we usually get to see, albeit sadly because of tragic circumstances.