EVER since his recent media workout, Conor McGregor has been on the receiving end of mockery from various boxers over his unique warm-up routine – including pound-for-pound star Terence Crawford.
The unbeaten American released a hilarious clip of him flailing his arms around in a similar fashion to McGregor, and challenged other boxers to ‘The McGregor Challenge.’
It didn’t take long for it to catch on, with fighters like David Haye and Jarrett Hurd getting involved, and Crawford recently spoke about how it came about.
“I was coming from the gym and everyone was watching a video and I asked what it was, then I said I am going to try that. A couple of days passed then I got everyone together to do the McGregor Challenge,” he said.
“I’ve been getting all kinds of response – I have been getting hate response, prejudice response, I’ve been getting a lot of positive response. People are telling me McGregor will beat me up. I just laugh – we are just having fun with it.”
Despite his extraordinary talents in the ring, which have seen him conquer two-weight classes, Crawford has not yet developed into a crossover star. This weekend he fights Julius Indongo for the chance to become the first undisputed world champion in men’s boxing since 2005.
The video of his McGregor Challenge showed a playful side of a fighter not yet know too well by the wider public. He insists that all of his training camps include fun like that, he simply chooses not to throw it out online all the time.
“We like to have some fun in training camp. Training camp is always hard work but have fun, hard work, have fun, hard work – if you don’t love what you are doing then you need to get a different job,” he said.
“We are dancing every single training camp that we have and play around – that is the different types of things that we do. It might be the first time that people actually got to see that outer Terence Crawford.
“It’s important for my brand but at the same time it is just I. I am not into publicising my every move – make a video and say ‘oh this is what I do for a living,’ I just go with the flow.”
