Peter Queally is honoured by comparisons to Conor McGregor as he heads into his Bellator world title fight in Dublin on Friday night.
Queally, a close friend and teammate of McGregor's since before his global superstardom, will face Patricky 'Pitbull' Freire for the lightweight world championship at Bellator 270 in the 3Arena.
It is the same venue where McGregor famously defeated Diego Brandao and announced to the world that Irish fighters were "not here to take part, but here to take over".
And he is excited to build on his friend's legacy by becoming just the second Irishman to win a major promotion's world title this weekend.
"It's going to rank right up there," Queally said when asked where he sees this potential night in Irish MMA history.
"The only other man who's won a world title is Conor and obviously this is a really great stage to share.
"When you're in that kind of realm where you're linked to Conor McGregor in terms of achievements.
"That's where it's going to be and you can't get much higher than this."
Queally beat 'Pitbull' in a behind-closed-doors bout at Bellator 258 in May, bludgeoning him with an elbow that forced the doctor to stop the bout between rounds two and three.
And since then, the Brazilian's brother Patricio has relinquished his lightweight world title after losing his featherweight belt to AJ McKee in July to allow this weekend's main event to be for the belt.
"I am grateful to his brother," Queally said. "It was very gracious of him. "I liked when he said that if he wasn't the featherweight champion then how could he see himself as the lightweight champion?
"I thought this was very cool so I'm very grateful to him, and I'll tell him that when I see him."
McGregor has been spending time with Queally in the lead-up to the bout, sharing a post calling this bout "destiny".
"Rallying into fight week with 'the showstopper' Peter Queally," McGregor said in a tweet to his 8.9million+ followers today.
"My long time training partner and friend is aiming to become Ireland’s first Bellator MMA world champion this weekend!
Will Patricky Pitbull beat Peter Queally in Dublin this weekend? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!
But to win the title, Queally will need a repeat of his incredible performance against one of MMA's most fearsome punchers.
'Pitbull' has earned himself the nickname 'the king of KOs' after vicious stoppages of top fighters including Josh Thomson and Roger Huerta.
"Patricio gave me a surprise," Pitbull told Mirror Fighting when asked how he reacted to news of his title opportunity.
"He called me and told me, he didn't want the belt any more and that we would fight for the title instead.
"Before [Peter] came to Bellator he came to Twitter and started talking s*** and I said I'd give him a job to fight me.
"This happened, and I think he should say 'thank you Patricky for this opportunity to fight against you and get to Bellator'!"
