“I know he’s not what he [once] was,” Topuria said in a recent interview. “He is a McGregor who represents alcohol and drugs more than sport.

“I was inspired by Conor. He was an inspiration for me when I was young. Myself and a lot of other people I know wanted to follow in his footsteps because he was an example of faith that everything can be achieved through [hard] work, consistency, effort.

“And he lost all of that because he betrayed the values that led him to all [of] his success.”

“It’s clear where we are talking about, right? A guy that nowadays doesn’t represent the values that he used to represent years ago.