With friends like this who needs enemies? BY LLOYD GORMAN
W
hile he has less and less to be happy about lately the stoney faced Vladimir Putin can sometimes crack a smile when the mood take him – but don’t expect any chuckles. The joyless autocrat has a zero tolerance policy about joking around as Conor McGregor discovered first hand when he met Putin in the flesh.
“Today I was invited to the World Cup [Moscow July 2018] final as a guest of Russian President Vladimir Putin,” McGregor, 33, posted on social media at the time. “This man is one of the greatest leaders of our time and I was honored to attend such a landmark event alongside him. “Today was an honor for me Mr. Putin. Thank you and congratulations on an amazing World Cup.” The brash fighter who also likes to call himself The Notorious Conor McGregor ‘gifted’ Putin with a bottle of his Proper 12 Whiskey, which he later claimed was the very first bottle of the stuff ever made. At some point during the audience with his host the pair cosy up for the obligatory photograph, as a short video easily found on Youtube shows. Just as he had a million times before the UFC star swung into a familiar pose and put his arm around Putin’s shoulder and made a raised clenched fist with his other hand. Your typical MMA fan might like to be manhandled like that but it was not how the would-be tyrant expected or accepted he should be treated. In the video clip one of Putin’s (many) bodyguards can be seen stepping in towards the overly enthusiastic Dub with some kind of warning to back off. As soon as he clocks the henchman’s posture a clearly startled McGregor removes his arm from around Putin, 8 | THE IRISH SCENE
