Conor McGregor doesn’t like the way Zuffa has been marketing his UFC 197 super-fight so far.
Conor McGregor isn’t happy with the UFC’s way of marketing the upcoming super-fight between fellow champion Rafael dos Anjos. During the first pre-fight press conference, McGregor didn’t have a belt on his table, nor was his featherweight strap seen on any of the UFC 197 promotional material.
“This is a super fight. I look upon that poster, I see myself tucked in the back there. That’s what I just noticed. Where is my damn belt?” McGregor asked during the press conference. “Where are all these historic images? These are posters that will be looked back on long after it’s all said and done and you’ve got to look back on that absolute garbage.”
“I think I might have to go into that department because they must be getting comfortable in that poster department. They wanna get their act together and start doing their damn job,” he continued. “He fought on free TV. He’s never brought a dime to the company, he’s never made a dime, yet there he is sitting on the front of my poster.”
Related: Conor McGregor: Dos Anjos is a bum version of Aldo, I’ll dust him inside one minute!
Dana White then tried to explain the situation immediately after.
“He’s challenging for the 155 lb belt. Everybody knows that,” White responded. “He’s challenging for this belt. His belt isn’t on the line. If he loses in this fight, he’s still the 145 lb champion.”
While that statement may be true, it’s worth noting that the UFC didn’t exactly handle marketing the same way when B.J. Penn tried to accomplish a similar feat. As the lightweight champ moved up to face Georges St-Pierre at UFC 194, both men had the belt on multiple posters and the two titles were physically there during the pre-fight conference as well.
It isn’t uncommon for events to have multiple poster designs nowadays, but it will still be interesting to see if the UFC releases new ones with both fighter’s titles moving forward.
McGregor also said a whole lot more about this upcoming bout during that presser. Watch the entire clip here.