This stunning ode to Conor McGregor will blow your mind

If this doesn't get you pumped for Croke Park 2015, nothing will

Fair play to Irish poet and blogger Daithí O'Connor for penning/typing this superb piece about UFC star Conor McGregor and his inexorable rise to a likely tilt at the featherweight title - hopefully in Dublin - next year.

A Warrior Awaits

A shadow cast on eight, the sides of test and tradition; A warrior awaits. Darkness, strobes, music and noise; The change in tune, the tact in tone, always calm. Emerging in strides, superior and significant; Bare skinned, bearded, braided and born. Tattooed and untainted, capped and comfortable; a celebration of confidence and indulgence in honour. A right hand raised, an emblem to roars; the approval all round answers acceptance to accolades. The face of focus; fuelled, ferocious and physical. Relaxed and relishing raucousness', a revelling renewed in expected conquest. Surrounded by stalwarts, saluting strength in their standing; the goal always glorious, the going a grateful gift. A fighter famed on feeding fiercely on the fallow; a freak of fearlessness inside the fence.   [continues below....] [caption id="attachment_6721" align="alignnone" width="800"] Conor McGregor at the UFC Dublin open workouts[/caption] The pride pronounced previous to participation, a publicity in positivity and persistence; A prize proudly personal and a promise... to his own person. Bold and brash, a champion challenging collective conclusions of characters contained. The tribal triggering, tastefully targeting those testing the temperament; trials always trumpeted, a top flight performer present not to take part, but only to take over. Inspiring, the self-respected ruthlessness that raises rancour; Rushing relentlessly in triumph, an Irish artist, flawless, fine-tuned and firm. Sweating in supremacy, selfishly succumbing to the stalks of success; second to none in notions that nurture the needs of a nation, No nonsense negotiations; 'I will win. I will win'. The calculated carnage, the bellows of belief; The narrow aisles, the path to righteous inevitably. A warrior awaits, but not in the shadows. The beaming light with eight sides around him; Ready, zealous and namely, Notorious. *Check out O'Connor's Reeling in the Fears blog here