As a fan of both Billy and Conor I’m predisposed to a little social media tracking. The various threads soon made it apparent the big wave titan and the UFC icon have a solid connection.
Tracks recently caught up with the Hawaiian surfer who has been on an almighty run so far in 2022. When asked about McGregor, Billy would tell Tracks that he greatly admired the Irish UFC fighter. The Hawaiian embodies a warrior spirit and admits he gained inspiration from athletes outside of surfing, like McGregor, on his come-up in professional surfing. For Billy it was a big moment when he randomly ran into Conor in a nightclub bathroom the night after he knocked out MMA legend Jose Aldo in 13 seconds. The anecdote about this encounter was one of the highlights of the conversation we had with Billy, who sure knows how to tell a story:
“As far as a relationship, I was just a big fan of his work, he’s a huge part of my motivation growing up. You know, I wasn’t truly motivated just by surfers by any means. Not really any surfers. Like I got motivation from guys like Conor McGregor or Kobe Bryant, those are the guys who I looked at for, you know, inspiration and wildly a few years back, I was in Las Vegas with a handful of my best friends and my girlfriend at the time and her entire family. I proposed to my wife that night, and we went out to Excess, the biggest nightclub in Vegas, and we’re partying, and I was in like in a private bathroom the security guard took me to.
And fucking the guy I’m taking a piss next to ended up being Conor McGregor. I’ve completely fanboyed out, just like holy shit, Conor McGregor. And this is him fresh off knocking Jose Aldo out in 13 seconds. Like, this is Conor McGregor at the peak, the pinnacle. And I was just blown away. And you know, the first thing after that he’s like, ‘where are you from?’ And I was like, ‘Hawaii’, he’s like ‘fuck, we’re islanders, we’re the same people.’ And I was like, AMEN to that brother. We just kind of conversed and he was there with just his manager. I know the people who run that club, we had like, the best table there. He ended up coming over and partying with us, bought my wife a $10,000 bottle of champagne as a gift for being engaged that night and signed a pair of gloves for myself and a pair for my brother-in-law Bruno Mars. (I was startled by the casual name drop over zoom but let Billy continue. If you don’t know Bruno, he’s a music superstar, notching up 15 Grammys over his illustrious career- a big deal.)
He (Conor) has just been an absolute legend since then, realistically, like, no bullshit, you know, every time I’ve reached out to him or commented or said something, he’s just been a really good person. And when you show me respect, fuck I show you respect and yeah, all in all, he’s, he’s an absolute legend in our day and age, you know, he’s changed the game. He fought Floyd Mayweather, I mean, what he’s done in this time frame is, you know, I would hate using the word impossible, but like it’s near that level, what he’s done, and it’s been an honour to watch it. To see what he has done and how much he’s motivated people and how many people he’s inspired to, you know, make it out of the streets or make it out of, you know, the slums of where they grew up in and, yeah, he’s, to me, he’s one of, you know, the most iconic athletes of all time, for sure you know, his name will be remembered with the Ali’s, the Tyson’s you know, the Babe Ruth’s. The list goes on the Michael Jordan’s, the Kelly Slater’s, he’s up there. He’s right there.”
Seven more things we learned from chatting with Billy Kemper, coming soon.
