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SPORTS MINISTER SHANE Ross has said he will most likely not be watching the Conor McGregor versus Floyd Mayweather fight taking place next week.
While McGregor is trying his hand in the boxing ring, Ross has been critical of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in the past, and has vowed to regulate the sport in Ireland.
Labelling elements of MMA as “disturbing”, the minister previously expressed his concerns and called for further measures to be taken to guarantee more safety.
Despite its growing popularity through Conor McGregor in particular, MMA is still not recognised as a legitimate sport in Ireland.
When asked by TheJournal.ie recently if he will be watching the boxing match on 26 August, which is taking place in Las Vegas, the minister said:
I probably won’t. I don’t know. I will be at all the women’s rugby games and all the football games coming up, and the World Cup qualifier Serbia game coming up in September. I just might miss out on the McGregor one, I am not a fan.
The minister stood by his previous comments about regulation, stating that while MMA is a high-profile case, rules should be in place to remove violence from all sport.
Ross also said he is concerned about dangerous behaviour taking place in sports, such as rugby, stating that sport has become more “physical”.
“I hope it doesn’t take some awful accident for us to wake up to the fact the sport is getting rougher,” he said.
Ireland and the Olympics
However, he said that Ireland is becoming a global player in the area of sport, adding that the country needs to set its sights high with what it wants to achieve.
Last month, the minister made headlines when he said Ireland should think about hosting the Olympics one day.
Appearing before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport, Tourism, and Sport, Ross said if Ireland’s 2023 Rugby World Cup bid was successful, then “the sky is the limit” to what Ireland could do.
When asked about the comments, he told TheJournal.ie that he was criticised for making such a statement.
“I got a lot of flak for that,” he said, adding:
If we go on and win the Rugby World Cup bid, which is a big if, for 2023, then we should continue. The Olympics comment was a bit of a flyer and I just threw it out there, and I got flak for it, but we should think in terms of ourselves as an international player in these games, and we are.
We are very, very good at sport now. We are good at golf, we have the Agha Khan Cup, we have a great record with rugby, cricket, you name a sport… so we shouldn’t laugh at people that put us in the global leagues.
The Olympics is a kind of economic nightmare, that is absolutely true, but who knows, in 2050 or 2060 we could be in the running for anything.
However, the tournament that is his number one priority now is the Women’s Rugby World Cup (which is being hosted in Ireland) for which he is attending every Irish fixture.
It is fantastically good for morale, but if we get through to the next round now, which is likely, people will get engaged, and get very proud of the Irish team.
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Shane Ross is not interested in fighting. If he was he would be fighting to regulate the car insurance industry and be telling us where the income from 245,000 vehicles a day, most of them commercial that cross just one of eleven toll bridges is going.
@Tom Fennelly: The only thing they fight over is how much of a pay rise they are entitled too
Mcgregor is an inspiration to the country. The most famous Irish man bar none. I’ll tell you what’s disturbing, hunting, horse racing, grey hound racing, bull fighting… They don’t have a choice. Mma two consenting adults throw down and suffer minimal injuries. What’s disturbing about that?
@Eoin de Barra: we don’t go much for bull fighting in Ireland Eoin…..bull$hit yes, but not bull fighting. As for “consenting adults” I think you’re on the wrong thread with that one :-)
@Eoin de Barra: He’s not an inspiration to me, or most of the people I know. I’ve never seen any of these fights, only see McGregor in news clips promoting himself and his brand, I chose not to buy into it as I am not a sheep.
@Sloop John G: good man sloop. I live in Spain. Bullfighting exists here. You’ll have to look up the meaning of consenting kid.
@Nick Drake: well done fella.
@Eoin de Barra: Yeah, minimal damage, tell that to Joao Carvalho’s family.
@Weldoninhio: people have died running half marathons. It was a freak incident.
@Eoin de Barra: People died from blunt force trauma running half marathons?? Tough 13 miles
@Weldoninhio: that was tragic for sure. But it was a freak accident. It’s not the norm for sure. Hunters shoot to kill. I think that’s a problem.
@Eoin de Barra: Hunters kill dumb animals, not humans. Should we start arresting lions for the murder of gazelles??
@Weldoninhio: more people have died from playing rugby and its blunt force trauma. Mr Ross is happy to go to those games
Most intelligent people won’t watch this farce.
@P C: you have met the McGregor fans haven’t you? They’ll definitely be watching it.
@JJ O Riordan: yeah the “McGregor Fans” are easily identified, they are the ones that dont have their heads up their backsides
@Jonny Chip: and their knuckles scrape off the ground as they walk.
@Jonny Chip: Exactly, they have their heads up McTapper’s backside.
I would give Ross a small amount of respect for his views, however it’s to late to worry about McGregor, behaviour like wearing a polar bear fur coat and trying to Dance on the bonnet of someone else’s car indicates catastrophic and irreversible brain damage.
@Dave Hogan: haha brilliant.. comment of the day
@Dave Hogan: comment of the year
Mr Ross, it’s not a MMA fight its Boxing ,
@ger power1: it’s a freak show
@ger power1: It’s not boxing either. In boxing, both people need to be able to box.
Shiny new teeth and a ticket to every major sporting event in the land. It’s amazing what a Ministry will do for a man.
Pity those new teeth didn’t come with a bit of bite.
And in other news: Leo Varadkar cuts his front lawn and paschal donohue blows his nose. Wow!
@theupsidedown: Leo lives in an apartment and Pascal has no nose.
@John O’Shea: comment of the day lolol
@John O’Shea: who said anything about grass?
Ross cares about nooooo one only himself ! As much as I’m not a fan of Mc Gregor he’s twice the man Ross is and that saying something .
Good for him not pretending he likes mcgregor or MMA just because an Irish chap has done well in it. This fight is nothing to get too brotheled about
Ha ha who really cares what Shane Ross thinks about McGregor vs. Mayweather?
He’s job is to propagate sports, but with a lean towards highly lucrative ones that can bring tax revenues. Boxing and MMA typically won’t bring massive revenues in Ireland. Larger field based team sports do so his is what he will focus on for the most part.
If that changed then he’d be all over boxing , mma etc.
Deffo not going to watch now that my hero Shane Ross wont..
UPDATE: Mayweather VS McGregor cancelled after Irish minister for Sport declares he won’t watch it.
Is there a prize for worst headline ever?
the phantom: that’s a great new word “brotheled “I am stealing it of you
@Brian O Reilly: Me too.
Shane Ross… an utterly usrless and incompetent politician and aside from that comes across as an eccentric nerd who is a bit of a chancer. But as an Irish politician he isn’t in the minority unfortunately.
Shane Ross is an out of touch failed plonker ! You cannot push back a flooding tide. Cmac is huge and MMA is huge and we should be very proud that he represents our country with such passion and pride. Sure, there are elements in MMA which may appear to be unsavoury but that goes for nearly all contact sports. Ice hockey, USA football, rugby( union and league), boxing etc. His wishy washy ” I’ll be watching all the ladies rugby” etc is patronising and nauseating. Go back and do what you do best. Holding hands with Eamonn Dunphy !!!
I am to my shame going to watch it ,but at a local venue with all the other Romans
Never going to be fun watching fun watching someone (McGregor) get battered
Does anyone honestly give a fck whether Ross watches this fight or not?
Hickey knocked him out in Rio. Useless spineless worm. That said he knows farce and shit when he sees it.
@Eoin de Barra: Shane Ross should definitely do something about bull fighting in Ireland.
Who actually gives a f### what he thinks
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