Everybody is a fanboy (or fangirl) of something in their life. Whether it's a particular movie series, a specific brand of ice cream, or the car that gets you from point A to point B, we all have certain allegiances that we're proud to stand by.
But how far are you willing to go to signal your fandom? In the case of athletes, you can quite literally put their name on your back by purchasing a jersey or even buy a pair of sneakers in some special cases. It's a little harder to do so for professional fighters because most people aren't going to walk around in boxing shorts or striking gloves on an average day. But if appearances are to be believed, one fan may have taken the ultimate step to feeling closer to Conor McGregor.
The soon-to-be victim of Floyd Mayweather wore a suit to a recent press conference that made headlines, with his wardrobe covered in pinstripes that spelled out "FUCK YOU." It was a clear message to Mayweather, and the follow-up interview we did with the designer of the suit provided a hilarious window into the thought process behind the suit.
To pay tribute to the suit's pinstripes, one fan shared a photo of what looked like a tattooed replica of the pinstripes.
New tattoo. What do you think @TheNotoriousMMA? pic.twitter.com/gCnSphWvxx
But Complex did some investigating and found this wasn't the first time Mr. Coombe had gone viral. The teenager made headlines in 2016 when he was forced to log out of his Twitter account for a year after a Manchester United prediction went horribly wrong. Given his viral history, we had to treat this claim with some skepticism.
As it turns out, that skepticism wasn't unfounded. In a brief exchange with Coombe, Complex learned the tattoo is not, in fact, his, and that Coombe merely took the photo from an unknown Facebook page and presented it to his rather-sizable following on Twitter as the genuine article. Kudos on the eye for content, but that leaves us with two very important questions: is this tattoo real, and if so, whose is it?
There are few results using reverse Google image search, with one Spanish website also tying the photo's origin to Facebook, and the others coming only after Coombe shared the photo on his Twitter page.
A Facebook page for a self-described "actor, writer, and comedian" has a photo that appears similar in nature to the more viral Twitter photo, but it is also an entirely different shot, albeit on a person in a similarly-colored shirt.
And the owner of that page, Darren Conway, was forthcoming about the photo being someone else's when pressed on the matter by Complex. He told a similar story to Coombe, only remembering that he saw the picture somewhere on Facebook before posting on his own page.
So could anyone actually be this dedicated to mimicking McGregor, or is this just an elaborate hoax? Either outcome is possible, but as of right now there's no confirmation of either. Until we can determine the truth one way or another, we will continue hunting down the story, and invite any tips on the story behind these incriminating photos.
