LAS VEGAS -- Eleven months ago, well before Dennis Siver became a bizarre pit stop on the road to the MacMansion, Conor McGregor hijacked UFC 182's pay-per-view for five minutes to espouse in thorough detail what he was not only going to do to his Russian-German counterpart, but also to the rest of the featherweight division by the time the new year reached its end. It was brash. It was ostentatious. It was everything McGregor encapsulated in his pre-Mendes form.
He told us that Siver would be dispatched with a quickness. He told us that this time would be no different than the last, that the only change between then and before was expectations, and where foes were once supposed to humble him, they were now expected to lose.