Tag: UFC 194

It was July 2014 when Conor McGregor, in front of his home country’s fans, attempted to stamp his future, barking the phrase, “We’re not here to take part, we’re here to take over.” 

At the time, it seemed just another audacious thing to say. While he had already proven himself to be intriguing and exciting, he was just 3-0 in the UFC and hadn’t beaten anyone inside of the top 10. Through his confidence, he commanded the sport’s attention, but skeptics abounded.

There was plenty of reason for doubt. The creation of a true box-office superstar requires a vast array of elements and circumstances, mixed with luck and timing. You generally need a winning fighter with a dynamic skill set, a raconteur’s verbal delivery, a compelling personal history, and the intangible ability to connect with audiences. 

The exclusion of any of those may be enough to torpedo a rise. To consider how many elements are necessary is to understand how many things can go wrong on the way. Maybe everything else is right but the marquee fight never comes together. Maybe there is a language barrier, or he/she simply lacks the necessary charisma. Maybe the fighter just isn’t good enough. Any single deficiency might be the one to trigger the audience to switch the channel, click on another story or otherwise ignore a worthy athlete.

What you see in McGregor is a perfect storm of personality, skills and circumstance translating into green.

For the longest time, it was accepted by many that women and lighter-weight fighters could never draw huge numbers to MMA. Ronda Rousey proved the former untrue. Now McGregor is disproving the latter. Moreover, with a win over Jose Aldo in the UFC 194 main event Saturday, he may actually soon equal or eclipse Rousey in star power.

Breaking through the walls of MMA and into the cultural zeitgeist is a rarity, but McGregor has already began to breach the niche, as evidenced by his recent profiling in The Wall Street Journal and feature appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

“Hollywood is screaming for me,” McGregor said during the recent UFC 194 conference call. 

Pre-fight hyperbole? Not really. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a declared fan. So is Mike Tyson. And Jean Claude Van Damme. And The Rock. 

Why? It’s hard not to notice or respect the box office numbers that McGregor has put up. Facing short-notice replacement Chad Mendes at UFC 189 in July, the event drew a $7.2 million gate, setting a new record for a U.S. MMA event. While most of those tickets were sold before Aldo withdrew with a rib injury, an Aldo-headlined event had never before cracked $3 million.

Moreover, even when fans learned Aldo was out, they didn’t abandon McGregor. Instead, about 825,000 ponied up the cash to watch McGregor stop Chad Mendes on pay-per-view. At an average price point around $55, the broadcast drew around $45 million in revenue.

When McGregor and Aldo finally do face off on Saturday, the matchup delay is expected to result in even higher revenues. UFC president Dana White recently said the UFC 194  box office gate at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena will surpass $9 million. 

That not only would crush the mark set in July, it would also exceed the gate numbers of UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia, which drew 56,214 fans for a gate of $6.8 million. McGregor-Aldo is also expected to threaten the 1 million buy mark on pay-per-view, a rarefied number only reached a handful of times in UFC history.

One month after Rousey lit the box office on fire, McGregor might blow her numbers away.

“We are on two different paths, and so I don’t really focus on her situation or anyone else’s situation but my own,” he said on the UFC 194 teleconference. “I’m just doing my own deal and what I’m doing, I’m carrying this whole damn game, and I love it. It feels light. The game, I’m carrying it on my shoulders, but it honestly feels light to me. I feel like they don’t see the squats with the whole game on my shoulders because it ain’t nothing.”

That’s a bit of bluster, but some braggadocio is deserved. For all of Aldo’s greatness, he’s never been a fraction of the draw McGregor has become.

From the moment he stepped foot in the UFC Octagon for the first time, Aldo was magic. A sinewy Brazilian with a combustible offense that always seemed on the verge of detonation, Aldo has at times seemed unbeatable, as if he could turn his performance up one level higher than any opponent on demand.

He is the first and only featherweight champion to date, with a reign that precedes the division’s entree into the UFC. For six years, he has carried the gold, and the target that comes with it. His win streak goes back a full decade. 

Despite all of his success, Aldo has been woefully short in one category of stardom: the ability to move audiences. He has never been a pay-per-view draw, and in fact, he is mostly seen and portrayed as the foil to McGregor rather than the star. McGregor-Mania is in such full swing that he was installed as the favorite, and he’s stayed there. 

Does any of this bother Aldo? 

“I mean, the guy’s working for me. He’s basically making me money so how could I be angry with him?” he said during the teleconference.

Aldo has repeatedly called McGregor a “clown,” signifying his belief that the Irishman is more entertainer than athlete, but some of that is likely with a wink to the audience. Aldo recognizes the payday, and while he may not like McGregor’s approach, his willingness to play along will indeed line his pockets, so why not play along?

“There is no persona,” McGregor said. “There is no act. I’m only a man, I’m telling my opponent what I’m going to do, how I’m going to do it. I’m assessing and dissecting their game, their life, their mental approach, I’m dissecting everything, and that’s it. It’s no persona, it’s no nothing. In that particular time when you’re on a world tour and doing these press conference, people ask you questions. And I’m simply running with it and telling the truth as to what I believe.”

McGregor has mostly been correct in these predictions, earning the nickname “Mystic Mac” from those who have tracked his prognostications. 

Unseating Aldo is the next one up. Then is a headlining spot at Dublin’s Croke Park. If McGregor can draw such huge numbers and money in the U.S., what could he do in his home country, in a stadium that holds over 80,000? Returning home with an undisputed championship and all the momentum that comes with it, he would likely break the all-time MMA gate record, still held by UFC 129 in Toronto ($12.075 million).

At just 27 years old, McGregor could easily weather a loss and rebuild his popularity. He can recover as long as his personality stays magnetic and his skills remain flashy. But that’s entertaining a possibility that he won’t acknowledge. So imagine if he wins. Imagine if he breaks Aldo’s 10-year win streak. Imagine if he captures the belt, steals all the headlines, and adds to his leverage and pull. One month after UFC’s biggest draw lost, the heir is poised to assume the throne and expand the empire. It’s as if he saw it coming. 

Mike Chiappetta is an MMA Senior Columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter. 

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