One day after the UFC announced Conor McGregor will challenge Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title in the main event of UFC 205, the two stars made their way to Madison Square Garden to discuss their November 12 matchup.
In addition to McGregor and Alvarez, UFC president Dana White moderated the panel.
This was certainly a much more cordial presser than the last one McGregor was part of before his rematch with Nate Diaz last month that resulted in bottles of water being thrown by both camps.
Since McGregor was involved, though, there were no shortage of hot sound bites to build the anticipation for one of UFC’s biggest shows ever.
ESPN’s Darren Rovell posed the first question, which was about UFC’s recent sale for $4 billion to WME-IMG, and connected it to McGregor‘s worth to the promotion.
Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting provided McGregor‘s response:
It’s not a surprise that McGregor was the star of the show. His reactions were easily the biggest for any of the fighters at the press conference.
Alvarez wasn’t the only fighter in attendance who wanted to call out McGregor, via UFC Europe (warning: contains some NSFW language):
McGregor endeared himself to his fellow Irish countrymen and New Yorkers with this statement, per Shaheen Al-Shatti of MMA Fighting:
There did seem to be a long delay to get this fight announced since it has been speculated basically since McGregor beat Diaz on August 20.
Per Jose Youngs of Sports Illustrated, McGregor confirmed when he agreed to challenge Alvarez:
One of the plans for this fight is if McGregor wins, he will have to forfeit either the lightweight or featherweight title.
However, per Sports Illustrated‘s Mike Dyce, McGregor doesn’t intend on giving up either one without a fight:
Alvarez, on the other hand, isn’t keen to see anyone else walking around with the 155-pound title, per Sports Illustrated:
McGregor is the main event at any press conference he attends, but Alvarez was not going to let this opportunity pass without getting in some shots at his opponent.
In particular, per Heidi Fang of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Alvarez questioning McGregor‘s stamina led to this exchange:
Per MMA Latest, Alvarez took a shot at McGregor for elements of his fighting ability:
The first fight with Diaz is the only recent fight in which McGregor didn’t take too well to adversity, though he was also trying to acclimate himself to a new weight class against one of the best submission fighters in the welterweight division.
McGregor laid out his plan for success against Alvarez, per Chamatkar Sandhu of USA Today:
Alvarez is 3-1 since coming to UFC in 2014, with three consecutive wins. He scored a technical knockout against Rafael dos Anjos, who had not lost a fight via KO since 2008, to capture the title in July.
McGregor is going back to lightweight for the first time since 2012, but it is a weight class he is familiar with compared to his two-fight journey up to welterweight.
Both fighters are supremely confident, as they should be. The only thing left is to determine which one will walk out of New York with all the gold.
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