I've not really ever considered myself a fan of Conor McGregor. The arrogance that he has displayed over the years on his rise to being the number one paid MMA fighter (by far) was one that kind of ground at my nerves to the point where I reveled in his defeats.
That being said, this new-to-Netflix (but released in 2017) documentary called Notorious is a winner and shows what Conor had to go through in order to rise to the level that he has achieved.
While watching the opening credits I noticed that McGregor is actually the producer of this documentary so I was thinking it would only focus on his successes. If you assume like I do, you would also be wrong and aside from one specific incident where they kind of glance over the fact that many people, including Dana White, don't believe that Conor actually won the second fight against Diaz, the portrayal is actually very fair.
The show takes us back to a humble, not-yet-covered-in-tattoos Conor, who is struggling to make ends meet, sparring with friends in tiny gyms with no funding.
Director Gavin Fitzgerald must have had a tremendous amount of faith in Conor's ability to rise to and maintain his position because this footage consists of clips collected over 4 years that Fitzgerald spent following Conor all over the world. This began right around the time that McGregor suffered his first loss at the hands of Nate Diaz.
I was kind of surprised that even with McGregor as the executive producer, they didn't just glance over this loss and try to sweep it under the rug, but instead spent a lot of time focusing on it, including showing some very rare footage of Conor being humble and admitting defeat - he makes no excuses.
From the official [Universal Pictures](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQLBOKpgXrSj3nPU-YC3K9Q) channelWhile I found this to be extremely entertaining and is also one of the few times in the past week that I have put my phone down and stared intently at the tv for 90 minutes, I will admit that I am a UFC junkie. For die-hard fans like me, this will be a great watch. However, I seriously doubt that it can entertain a wider audience.
For me Notorious showed a more modest side of the man and since his crazy antics in the past have actually turned me off to the dude, it was nice to see a more human side as far as his interactions with other fighters, particularly in his younger years, carried out.
Basically, I loved it, But I also realize that if you don't like UFC or fighting sports, this documentary is not going to change that.
