A mixed martial artist can only climb so high with the mainstream public when looking strictly at fighting ability. In order to move to the next level, one must possess something unique that people can latch on to in a positive or negative way.
Whether it was just a marketing strategy, or an expression of some kind of deeper animosity toward Jose Aldo, Conor McGregor‘s histrionics at the UFC 189 World Tour press conference on Tuesday were brilliant. In case you didn’t see it or want to watch it again, here’s the video footage of what went down:
While that was the end result of the press conference, let’s go back a few minutes to describe what brought us to that particular moment.
First, it’s important to set the stage. The press conference took place in Dublin, Ireland, which is where McGregor is from and is a popular MMA area.
Aldo, who hasn’t lost since November 2005 and is the UFC featherweight champion, found this to be a good time to rile up the crowd and his opponent. He proclaimed himself the “King of Dublin,” per Damon Martin of Fox Sports.
As you would expect, especially with a rowdy hometown crowd to support him, McGregor took offense to the remarks and decided to fire back verbally before grabbing Aldo’s belt, with UFC tweeting out one of McGregor‘s key points:
The two had a brief shouting match that nearly came to blows, with UFC president Dana White keeping them apart. Even though Aldo and McGregor have not hidden their disdain for each other throughout this tour, Tuesday was a cut above anything else.
This is nothing but good news for the UFC, which has three months to build the fight off of the mayhem of this press conference, since the event doesn’t take place until July 11. As great as Aldo is as a fighter, and as much as McGregor‘s star has risen, neither one is doing much to sell the fight on his own.
While it’s not entirely fair to say McGregor can’t sell a fight to casual fans, since he’s only headlined shows that aired on national television instead of pay-per-view, here are numbers from Aldo’s events as the main event performer:
The featherweight title is one of the youngest major titles in the UFC, making its debut in 2010 when Aldo defeated Mark Hominick. Fans need time to get acclimated with the fighters in a division, but the fact that buy rates have stayed at 180,000 for Aldo’s last two fights is troubling.
So how do you put together a fight that will break through the 180,000-buy barrier? Have two fighters who seem to genuinely dislike each other, or are at least doing a good job of faking it, take part in a perfect moment at a press conference in which they nearly come to blows.
It’s a simple marketing premise that is used all the time. Chael Sonnen was a solid fighter when he competed, and he became a sensation thanks to his ability to talk as well as any professional wrestler prior to two fights against Anderson Silva.
Aldo and McGregor are better fighters now than Sonnen was at any point in his career. They deserve to have as many eyeballs as possible watching their fight. Now, thanks to this one brief moment at a press conference three months before the event, the UFC has the perfect marketing strategy to make sure it happens.
In addition to increasing the pay-per-view buys, Aldo and McGregor get their moment in the spotlight to become superstars who can draw consistently big numbers. There’s no downside for the fighters or the UFC in this instance.
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