Joshua Van narrates incredible story of how Conor McGregor's feud with Floyd Mayweather drew him to MMA

Joshua Van has opened up about how Conor McGregor impacted his combat sports journey by sparking his interest in MMA.

The 25-year-old cited McGregor's lone professional boxing match -- his iconic "money fight" against legendary pugilist Floyd Mayweather Jr. MMA legend McGregor ventured into Mayweather's area of expertise and ended up suffering a 10th-round TKO defeat. 

Nevertheless, the boxing match, which was held in August of 2017, earned McGregor considerable praise for his willingness to take such a monumental risk and his extraordinary ability to promote his fights. 

Joshua Van's MMA career, imminent UFC clash with Manel Kape

Joshua Van made his professional mixed martial arts debut back in 2021. The striking savant's UFC promotional debut came in 2023. He's amassed an 18-2 MMA record thus far and is the reigning UFC flyweight kingpin. 

Van captured the 125-pound belt with an injury-induced TKO victory against Alexandre Pantoja last year. The Burmese-American combatant notched his first title defense by stopping Tatsuro Taira via TKO earlier this year.

Moreover, Van's latest Octagon outing saw him defend his belt again by getting the better of Pantoja via unanimous decision in their rematch, which headlined UFC 331 last month. Presently, the consensus is that the flyweight titleholder could put his title on the line against archrival Manel Kape, sometime next year. 

Joshua Van narrates an amazing story about how Conor McGregor's Floyd Mayweather feud got him to MMA

During a recent appearance on Outta Pocket with RGIII, Joshua Van suggested that he wasn't exactly an avid sports follower but knew who American boxer and celebrity Floyd Mayweather Jr. was.

On that note, MMA icon Conor McGregor's press conferences and world tour to promote his boxing match with Mayweather are what introduced Van to the Irishman. Upon learning more about McGregor, he was introduced to MMA, eventually bringing him to the sport as a fighter. 

When asked whether McGregor was the person who inspired him to get into the sport of MMA, Van stated: 

"Yes, for sure. It was when he fought Floyd... That press conference and the whole world tour that they went. I was like, 'Who the f**k is this white guy that's talking crazy?' Like, I don't watch sport, but everybody know Floyd." 

Van continued, "So I was like, 'Damn. He's talking crazy to Floyd.' And I do research on Conor, and I was like, 'Oh, sh**. There's fighting like this.' It's like a street fight with more technicals and skills and things like that. So I'm like, 'This is what I wanna do.'" 

Van indicated that even as a youngster, he knew that it was a tad late for him to start training in and succeed in the sport of boxing, as most top boxers usually train from the age of 5-6. However, MMA seemed like a better fit for him. 

"The Fearless" said, "So I was like, 'This is what I wanna do.' And that's when I know about MMA and stuff like that." 

Incidentally, the retired Mayweather and UFC megastar McGregor are still considered to be at odds, with "Money" recently claiming that the Dubliner took his "swag."

Watch Joshua Van recount the role Conor McGregor played in the origin of his MMA career below (*comments at the 22:47-minute mark of the video):