The No. 1 fight promotion may not pay as well as, say, Saudi Arabia, but there’s an undeniable power to the brand to help athletes launch their careers into the stratosphere.
Conor McGregor admits UFC pay may be low, but the promotion makes up for it with a level of prestige unavailable elsewhere in combat sports.
McGregor recently spoke with TNT Sports, where he suggested he’d continue fighting til they put him in a pine box. He also sounded like he was interested in sticking with the UFC despite big money opportunities elsewhere. To Mac, the UFC platform has value that others may not appreciate.
“It was certainly a major launchpad, to be aligned with the UFC for anyone is a major launch pad,” McGregor said. “It’s one of their negotiating tactics all right, you’re with the UFC now, that in itself is prestige. Which is enough to say, you know, you could take a lower value than another area may offer you in today’s climate. But it’s the UFC brand value, and that holds mega weight.”
“Look at how it has worked out for me,” he added. “It has helped me, it has helped catapult me into many arenas where I have succeeded immensely.”
McGregor is down to the last two fights on his current UFC contract and has suggested he might become a free agent before re-signing with the promotion. At the same time, he’s professed immense loyalty to the company that helped make him a global superstar.
With a fight coming ‘this summer,’ we’ll soon know what McGregor’s value is looking like. Can he maintain a position at the top of the rankings, or will he become more of a special attraction? We’ll definitely know after he gets through those last two fights.