Philly McMahon has a word of advice for Tyrone ahead of Sunday's All-Ireland SFC semi-final - don't waste your time trying to wind him up!

The seasoned All-Star defender won't rise to the bait because he will be too focused on the important task at hand.

"I'd like to be a fly (on the wall) in the changing room of the opposition," the All-Star defender remarked to The Irish Independent.

"I think it would be a stupid thing to do because it's kind of my bread and butter.

"I've never failed to, you know, to fall into that trap, so if there's an opposition team that are thinking of doing that to me, I'd welcome it. Because I don't think it works."

His experience in MMA has helped the Ballymun Kickhams clubman to keep his temperament under control out on the field.

"I'm very lucky that I've done MMA a lot so when you're getting punched in the face and you're not just reacting, you're responding I suppose to the situation and it just becomes a habit. It's something I've done all my career.

"It's experience, it's being able to bring your brain through those little compartments and make sure they don't happen."

He added: "I like the challenge of all the different styles within the one sport. And I like that you can channel the aggression into a sport like I do with football as well. But you can actually hit people in that sport, which is a little bit better."

So what does he think of Conor McGregor's chances of pulling of what would be a massive upset against Floyd Mayweather this weekend?

"I suppose I'm like every Irish person. We want him to win but I think it's a big challenge.

"You just never know because it's like us playing Tyrone next week, we don't know how well we're prepared for it. We don't know how well our attack is going to work, the same with them.

"But this fella has so much self-belief that anything can happen. He can just catch him with one shot. He's definitely the bigger man and has freak power and freak movements.

"It's like the Donegal game we played in 2014 - we didn't know they were going to come out with them sort of tactics. Mayweather won't know what McGregor is going to come out with. His movement is so different to an orthodox boxer."

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