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Whether it is a legitimate statement or not, Conor McGregor is claiming that he will run for office as president of Ireland in 2025. Ben Askren is among those who believe the announcement was made under pretenses.
Denying to accept McGregor's tweet, Askren made an analogy dismissing the bold claim by connecting it to the Irishman's recent fighting career. 'Funky' ended his jab by telling Daniel Cormier that he should have "listened" to him.
Askren tweeted:
"Lol almost as likely as him fighting in 2023. [Daniel Cormier] shoulda listened to me"
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Askren's mentioning of Cormier references the video segments the two retired fighters post together on the latter's YouTube channel. They most recently discussed McGregor in a video released on Aug. 7, in which Askren found the 35-year-old's disapproval of Donald Trump amusing.
With differing career paths, McGregor and Askren have never had a competitive rivalry but both are known to have personalities that can easily clash.
Conor McGregor's tweet declaring presidential candidacy
The idea of Conor McGregor running for president of Ireland began on Sept. 5 with a tweet from 'The Notorious.' McGregor ended his message by saying "2025 is upcoming," the year of the next presidential election in the country.
In the post, McGregor said Ireland "needs an active president employed wholly by the people" of the nation. The former two-division UFC champion then declared that the person he was describing is himself, saying that he is the "only logical choice."
Unsurprisingly, Ben Askren was not the only person surprised by the unprompted announcement. Like the 40-year-old retired fighter, many also did not take the tweet seriously with McGregor still an active UFC fighter.
Needless to say, McGregor has no political experience beyond tweeting his thoughts on his home country's current events. Ireland's current president, Michael D. Higgins, has been in office since 2011.
