OK, no-one in my feed gives a shit about professional fighting, and I get why this is. It's a brutal and lowbrow entertainment. But you can't help loving what you love, and I love it despite by better judgment. So feel free to ignore the following thoughts on Conor McGregor.

McGregor is the one fighter almost everyone has heard of, even those who don't follow sports at all. As I am the only fight fan in my social circle, people around me sometimes ask about him whenever he has a fight (which is not often these days). So this is what I have to say.

McGregor is a very talented fighter. He has what is called "athleticism," in spades: he is explosive, fast, agile, has extraordinary proprioception, hits hard, has exquisite timing ... everything an athlete could want. And he is just really good at fighting. He was born for it.

He's also a scumbag with multiple well-attested accusations of rape and assorted acts of sexual misconduct. He is a bully who slapped an old man in a pub because he wouldn't drink McGregor's shitty cheap whiskey. He spews racist filth to hype fights. And so forth.

If you ever see a Twitter account with a McGregor avatar, the person behind it is almost certainly an idiot and ignoramus. They represent a kind of fan that flooded into the space during his rise to fame and made following MMA almost unendurable.

I'm sure one or two will find this tweetstorm -- they live only to defend Conor's honor (such as it is) and will bog down every discussion of him with their bullshit and clownish acting-out. BTW if this is you, I will block with extreme prejudice.

Anyway, he just got KTFO'd by Dustin Poirer, a decent man who has worked tirelessly to help people in need. I am pretty pleased about this, obviously, and I'm also not surprised. He was a 3-1 underdog, but the hardcores know how good he is. He's really, really good.

Why are so many people surprised? Poirer fights regularly, he fights the best of the best, & he beats almost all of them. Conor fights rarely and has avoided people who can beat him, except when he is after a championship and can't pick his opponents (eg Khabib & Aldo).

We saw what happened when he faced Khabib. Now, he did clock Aldo with that famous 13-second punch; that's something. Still, look at his record. Leaving Khabib side, most of the fighters he's beaten have been around .500 since their fight with him -- including Aldo.

Exceptions: a very young Max Holloway, who went on to be a generational talent (Conor has carefully avoided him since) and Dustin Poirer. Which is why I was surprised that Conor agreed to fight him. It's a fight he didn't have to take & had a good chance of losing.

It shouldn't be surprising. Low calf kicks have transformed the sport since Conor largely absented himself from it, & Poirer shredded him with them. Fighters lose when they don't train. He's distracted and vain, surrounding himself with sycophants. He's caught up in celebrity.

Now here's the Weird Studies part. Conor has repeatedly said that Rhonda Byrne's "The Secret" has been the key to his success. Fight journos think this is just an amusing eccentricity because they don't understand magic. I think it's essential to understanding him & his success.

This is the power-of-positive-thinking magic that Mitch Horowitz has written so much about. It's also what Trump has used throughout his life. Trump & Conor both have a history of over-performing by living in a self-created reality where they are kings.

Trump is a weak and stupid man & yet made himself the obsessive focus of the entire world, for years. Conor is a talented fighter and shitty person who under ordinary circumstances might have gotten as far as fighting for a title but probably not winning it. Yet here we are.

Astronomers predict invisible planets by seeing the peturbations they cause in the gravity of observable bodies. I've long thought that something like that was at work in both Trump and Conor. There's some invisible force that has allowed these improbable things to happen.

I believe that "New Thought" magic is extremely powerful. I have seen it with certain people I've known whose lives have almost felt as if they are following a script. As if they are characters in a story they are writing.

This can be for good or ill: I know people who are shit magnets because that is the story they have written for themselves, & I know people who have enjoyed utterly improbable success for the same reason. They don't always know they're doing magic, but they are doing it anyway.

The examples of Trump & Conor might suggest that New Thought is bad magic, but really it's just amoral, like magic generally. It's a tool that can be used for good or ill. But it's surprisingly powerful & not to be trifled with.