Just when you thought 2017 couldn’t get more 2017, a Conor McGregor look-alike managed to dupe thousands of people into flocking toward him in New York this past weekend. The stunt effectively shut down parts of Times Square, and he even blocked traffic while he walked on the Brooklyn Bridge—and I’m not talking about the pedestrian portion. In retrospect, it was probably annoying for everyone—particularly when they find out it wasn’t McGregor himself.
Islam Badurgov is a street performer from Kazakhstan, and bears a striking resemblance to McGregor. His teeth, his haircut, his muscle tone, and the fake tattoo application is ridiculously precise. The only thing is, whenever he opens his mouth, Kazakh falls out instead of an Irish brogue. Oh, and when his glasses come off, you can definitely tell it’s not him.
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In anticipation of the megafight between McGregor and Floyd Mayweather on August 26, Badurgov decided to assemble his crew to go wreak havoc on the streets of New York, and they actually did a pretty good job shutting things down:
Badurgov pulled off the same shit in Los Angeles, except with a much more impressive street athletic performance. The New York trip, however, seemed to be all about the fame.
It’s hard to fault Badurgov and his crew for having a shit-load of fun, clowning on the cops, etc. What would you do in his position? And it’s hard to fault people for being tricked into thinking he’s McGregor—he looks so much like him.
The silly part is just how much people really desperately want that 15 second brush with a punchy-man. Sure, it’s all fun in the long run, and no one is to blame here. I guess I just feel bad for the woman in the video who said, “you just made our trip.” But then again, maybe Badurgov did.
[h/t FTW]
