Last weekend, Conor McGregor cemented himself as the biggest star in the UFC with his knockout win over Chad Mendes at UFC 189.
It was one for the history books, capping off a thrilling fight card that ranks among the best main cards in UFC history. The atmosphere, the crowd, the entrances: All of it set McGregor up to make a statement, and that’s exactly what he did.
But then on Sunday, the UFC announced that McGregor would coach the next season of The Ultimate Fighter against Urijah Faber. Social media groaned; why were the UFC so intent on overexposing McGregor? Wouldn’t it be better to just put him on the sidelines for a few months, to make the fans desperate to see him?
To discuss the UFC’s decision to name McGregor as a TUF coach, Jeremy Botter and Jonathan Snowden got together to answer the question: Is too much Conor McGregor a bad thing?
Jeremy Botter: UFC 189 was the single greatest Ultimate Fighting Championship card I’ve ever attended. I hate assigning those kinds of labels to things with such immediacy, but there it is: It’s the best card I’ve ever seen in person, and I have seen plenty of them over the years.
The morning after, I woke up and watched the pay-per-view broadcast at home. I wanted to see if it felt just as big at home as it did in the arena. It did. The UFC has a genuine superstar on its hands in Conor McGregor. He’s the one it’s been searching for since Brock Lesnar went back to pro wrestling. UFC 189 felt big because he is a special attraction.
And then, on Sunday night, the UFC announced that McGregor would be coaching on The Ultimate Fighter. Just like that, the air went out of my sails. Instead of saving McGregor for special events, he was going to be pushed down our throats on a weekly basis on a reality show that has long since worn out its welcome.
And I can’t help but wonder, Jonathan: Why? Why are we doing this? Why can’t we put McGregor on timeout and save him until November, when they need to start building up the Aldo fight? Why do we need all McGregor, all the time? Because I hate this.
Jonathan Snowden: The UFC may be a lot of things, but subtle isn’t one of them. It rightfully recognizes that McGregor is the industry’s next big thing. He’s the superstar it’s desperately sought for years. But now that it has him, on the brink of unprecedented success, it is at a loss for what to do next.
The truth is, the UFC doesn’t really know how to handle a star on McGregor‘s level. It’s spent 14 years attempting to push its brand ahead of even its most successful fighters. Now that it has a star capable of transcending its narrow niche, there is no playbook to follow.
More, more, more is the only answer it knows.
Like most good things, he was a gift who plopped down in its proverbial lap, a self-created force of personality who wouldn’t be denied. The UFC has proven over the years that it can’t create a star like McGregor or Ronda Rousey. It’s proving now that, just maybe, it doesn’t really know what to do with them when they show up unannounced either.
Jeremy: Clearly, I am no fan of putting McGregor on The Ultimate Fighter, for reasons we have both discussed. But then I think: What’s the harm? Nobody watches that show anyway. Isn’t it sort of like burying him away where he won’t be seen?
That’s a bit silly, of course. The idea of putting McGregor on TUF is to boost the ratings of a lagging, failing show. If it works out, then we’ll all hear about how TUF is back and how it’s one of the highest-rated reality shows on television. If it doesn’t (and I suspect this will be the case), then the only people being overexposed to McGregor will be the hardcore fans who tune in to the show.
But it’s the idea of the thing that bothers me. McGregor is a special talent, the kind of star the UFC has been searching for. And instead of treating him like he’s special, it’s putting him on a terrible reality show in an effort to draw eyeballs. I think McGregor should have gone radio silent for a few months, then brought back to begin promotion for the Aldo fight. Instead, he’ll be on television on a weekly basis, slowly chipping away at his aura.
And you’re right: The UFC clearly is looking out for itself here, rather than protecting McGregor‘s star power. It’s using him to elevate UFC-branded properties, because at the end of the day, that UFC brand is all that matters to it. And I think that sucks.
Jonathan: The key to success on pay-per-view is activating the base and inspiring casual observers to give the UFC a chance. Hardcore fans are an important part of the equation. The mainstream takes their cues from us—McGregor held fans in the palm of his dangerous hands, and we did the evangelical work for him. It’s the kind of authentic advertising no amount of money can buy.
If we’re suffering McGregor fatigue, the mainstream will too with time.
Look, the UFC wants to be in the Conor McGregor business. And I don’t blame it. As journalists dependent in some ways on interest in the sport to make a living, we want to be in the McGregor business too.
But at some point, McGregor will wake up—like every other star in UFC history—and realize that he and the UFC have divergent goals and interests. The UFC has a card to promote almost every week and a failing reality television show to prop up.
None of that should be McGregor‘s concern. At this point, he has more in common with Floyd Mayweather than Anthony Pettis or Gilbert Melendez. Positioning him as just another UFC guy doing the standard UFC things doesn’t make sense.
McGregor, right now, is bigger than the UFC. He’s the transcendent star capable of leading us to the promised land of mainstream acceptance and worldwide success. Like it or not, it’s Conor McGregor‘s world—and that’s something the promotion is going to have to get used to.
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