LAS VEGAS — Look out, folks: Conor McGregor is the real deal.
The loud-mouthed Irish fighter, who jumped on the UFC scene and made an immediate splash by talking his way up the ladder, put an emphatic end to all discussion that he might be all hype and no fight by crushing Dustin Poirier and finishing the Louisiana native in the first round. It went almost exactly the way McGregor predicted it would go and finished in the exact round he said it would.
Afterwards, McGregor said he was going for the championship. He’ll fly to Brazil next month to sit by the Octagon while champion Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes have their rematch. By all indications, McGregor will likely leapfrog the winner of the November bout between Frankie Edgar and Cub Swanson and fight for the title after Mendes and Aldo.
And rightly so.
The lower weight classes in the UFC have lacked a true superstar ever since they were installed. Edgar, Aldo, and Demetrious Johnson have failed to connect with fans in the way their heavier counterparts have. Pay-per-views headlined by these weight classes routinely do far lower numbers than heavier weight fights.
Which is why McGregor, despite being ranked lower than many of his featherweight counterparts, should absolutely get the next title shot. Sometimes, you have to do something because it makes fiscal sense. And right now, McGregor makes fiscal sense.
Just ask the UFC, who hosted thousands of Irish fans here in Las Vegas during fight week. Clad in Irish flags and drinking copious amounts of beer, they represented a large populartion willing to travel whenever McGregor fights. Imagine, if you will, that McGregor gets his wish and fights for the championship belt in a soccer stadium in Ireland? The place will be packed. Ireland, already MMA-crazed, will become even more so. They’ll pack Dublin and create a monstrous source of revenue for the UFC, and it is a source of revenue that could expand and help them cement their presence in other European markets.
Is McGregor deserving? He’s not more deserving than Edgar or Swanson. Dennis Bermudez is probably more deserving, as well. But what we’re talking about here transcends who is deserving and who is not. However, we’re talking about business, and the possibility of an enduring star that might be able to draw on pay-per-view. This is not an absolute—much of McGregor’s future stardom will be pinned on his continual ability to win, and there are no guarantees he could beat Aldo or Mendes or even Edgar or Swanson. Which is why you must ride the wave he’s creating right now, while it still exists.
“When one of us go to war, we all go to war. Our countrymen have been fighting our whole lives, this is where we come from. I’m cocky in prediction but humble in defeat. I said this wasn’t going to be a challenge, and I felt this was handed to me,” McGregor said after the fight. “I said I was going to show the difference between a king and a contender and I proved that tonight because Dustin had never been knocked out and I did that in the first round. I’ll go to Brazil. If they need me to step in, I’m ready. We’ll see what happens but who else can they give me? It’s my belt, and I’m ready to steal it and take it back to my country.”
McGregor’s future is bright, and he is a better fighter than many give him credit for. He is also not as good as many people—mostly those Irish folks who flew thousands of miles to be in Las Vegas—believe he is. But he is a good fighter. He is not all style and no substance. There is substance there, though we still cannot be sure exactly how much.
But what we do know is this: McGregor’s the man of the moment for the UFC. For the first time ever, a 145-pound fighter in the UFC has created mass market and casual fan interest. It is time to capitalize on his momentum, to fly him to Brazil and to have him step into the Octagon to challenge the winner. Yes, it’s probably a bit too showy for the taste of hardcore fans.
But those hardcore fans—the ones who would rather see Edgar or Swanson or Bermudez challenge for the belt—they aren’t the fans the UFC are targeting. They already have their dollars and their attention. With McGregor, the UFC can target casual fans. That is a rare thing for the UFC these days; they have Ronda Rousey, and that’s about it.
You can’t pass up an opportunity to create more fan interest, and I suspect the UFC realizes it, too.
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