mcgregor forever review

McGregor Forever review | Action-packed documentary series shows the resilience of MMA’s biggest star

★★★☆☆
McGregor Forever presents Conor McGregor as an unstoppable force. Read our full review of the new Netflix documentary.

☆☆

McGregor Forever presents Conor McGregor as an unstoppable force. Read our full review. 


“It’s hard to get out of bed in the morning and do roadwork at 5am if you’re sleeping in silk pyjamas,” said the legendary boxer, Marvin Haggler. The idea being that successful fighters come from and are moulded by a certain rugged environment – Crumlin, Dublin 12 certainly fits that profile. That’s where the face of mixed martial arts, Conor McGregor, grew up.

His meteoric rise within the UK scene, then subsequently in the UFC, amassed him millions of fans around the world, and pretty quickly he became a champion, then the first simultaneous 2-division champion. He reportedly earned an estimated $75 million for the wildly popular and much promoted crossover boxing bout with Floyd Mayweather. 

That’s where McGregor Forever picks up, 11 months after. The documentary is what you would imagine for a star of his calibre – some genuinely revealing moments, mixed with pseudo-motivational training montages, and finally some footage of him and his family. 

mcgregor forever boxing

McGregor Forever. Conor McGregor in McGregor Forever. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2023

Episode 1 is the most interesting, detailing the lead-up to his fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in October 2018. Ahead of what would become the UFC’s biggest event of all time, later tied 3rd for most pay-per-view buys across all combat sports of all time, McGregor suffers dislocated toes in training. Injury is a consistent theme throughout the series, with this first incident serving as a prophetic warning of things to come. 

Given McGregor’s fiery attitude and displeasure towards Nurmagomedov, the representation of the Russian as a sporting threat is surprisingly fair and accurate (as it is with other opponents in later episodes). During the lead up to the fight, McGregor and a mob attacked a bus Khabib was on, smashing the window and injuring other UFC fighters in the process. 

McGregor legitimately faced charges in New York for this and part of the doc details his time fulfilling his community service at a local church. This is as transparent as the documentary ever goes in regards to his legal battles, of which he’s had more than his fair share of, including smashing a fan’s phone and punching an older man in a pub. Expectedly, none of this is discussed. 

Later in McGregor Forever, we see a never-before-seen clip of the moment McGregor hears of Khabib’s retirement. It’s a poignant moment, where McGregor’s true attitude towards Nurmagomedov – and the prospect of never getting another fight with him – is revealed. It’s only a slight glimpse, but he seems genuinely upset that he will never be able to avenge the loss. Or the showman that he is, perhaps it’s because he knows how big of a fight it could have been. My money’s on the latter.

The series also covers his fights with Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone and Dustin ‘The Diamond’ Poirier, the last fight ending in a career-defining injury for ‘The Notorious’. But the biggest takeaway from McGregor Forever is undoubtedly McGregor’s resilience. Both in the face of defeat as an athlete, but also in his physical suffering and ability to bounce back. Throughout the series we see issues with his ankle, toes, feet etc. 

There’s also the weight cut, which refers to the process of draining excess water weight for a competitive advantage the day before a fight. McGregor looks gaunt, but it’s nothing new. In fact, it’s par for the course for any MMA fighter. But his final cringe-inducing injury, sustained at UFC 264 against Poirer, where he steps back and shatters his ankle in a freak accident, is the defining moment. How he comes back from it in the final moments of McGregor Forever is the embodiment of his unrivalled determination, persistence and grit. 


McGregor Forever is now streaming on Netflix.


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