Conor McGregor, the champion MMA fighter and bus destroyer, attended the World Cup final on Sunday. McGregor was the guest of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and while we’re all for being respectful to a gracious host, McGregor might want to go a little easy on the accolades.
McGregor posed for a photo with the smiling Putin and posted it to his Instagram account. In the photo description, McGregor explained how honored he was to attend the match between France and Croatia and to sit next to “one of the greatest leaders of our time.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BlQwXEBAHlN/?utm_source=ig_embed
McGregor wrote the following caption, then added “Россия вперёд!” which translates to “go Russia!”
Today I was invited to the World Cup final as a guest of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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.
Россия вперёд!
Even McGregor’s steadfast supporters took issue with calling Putin a great leader, writing to him on Twitter that “fear and murder” shouldn’t really be on a leader’s resume.
You may be my favorite fighter of all time but no,man, Putin is not a great leader. Unless you consider leading by fear and murder is considered great. Then yeah I guess he's great at murder.
— Shawn Coss (@ShawnCoss) July 15, 2018
Here’s a quick rundown of the bullet points on Putin’s resume as a world leader, and some of true accomplishments, including allegedly bombing apartment buildings and shooting down planes full of innocent people.
Tom English, chief sports writer for BBC Scotland, summed up the post and McGregor’s fanboy act with one simple word: “puppet.”
Puppet
— Tom English (@TEnglishSport) July 15, 2018
McGregor has yet to address his critics.