In the 1990s it would’ve been nearly impossible to explain to someone what mixed martial arts was. Big, burly men fighting in a cage hardly appealed to the ruling classes in America and organisers of cage fighting struggled to find venues. True, the movement grew with some early superstars, and the phenomenon of fighting itself has always captivated the instinctual interest of a broader, largely male, public. But still, it remained a predominantly niche interest. That all changed when Conor McGregor entered the stage, and with it an attention to Christianity and its central message of forgiveness.