There’s little doubt that the upcoming Conor vs. Khabib megafight at UFC 229 will be one of the biggest fights in MMA history. Just how big remains to be seen. McGregor already owns the record for most pay-per-view (PPV) buys sold for his anticipated rematch with Nate Diaz at 2016’s UFC 202. That card sold […]
There’s little doubt that the upcoming Conor vs. Khabib megafight at UFC 229 will be one of the biggest fights in MMA history.
Just how big remains to be seen.
McGregor already owns the record for most pay-per-view (PPV) buys sold for his anticipated rematch with Nate Diaz at 2016’s UFC 202. That card sold 1.6 million buys, and he also owns the Nos. 2 and 3 spots. The infamous Irishman brought in 1.3 million buys apiece for his initial meeting with Diaz at UFC 196 and his title win over Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205.
UFC President Dana White thinks McGregor will smash that record when he faces Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in October. Speaking to TSN Sports‘ Aaron Bronsteter, White believes the biggest fight of the year will bring two million:
“We’re looking at two million pay-per-view buys.There was really no problems putting this fight together. It’s what makes Conor McGregor such an international superstar. This guy fights anybody, anywhere, any time. After a two-year layoff, he comes right out of the gate and wants Khabib and Khabib, who’s undefeated and obviously destroyed everybody in front of him, wants this fight now and wants to defend his title against Conor McGregor.”
There’s a good chance of Conor vs. Khabib breaking the UFC record for PPV buys; that much is certain.
But hitting the never-before-seen watermark of two million buys is another thing altogether. With UFC PPV sales at an all-time low, it may take quite the promotion to make the card reach such a level.
And with less than two months remaining until fight time, it may be tough to build that kind of hype.
Do you agree with White’s optimistic prediction for the massive event?
Nate Diaz may be back – or so we think – but his discord with the UFC rages on.
The MMA world was dealt some somewhat shocking but highly desired news last week when it was revealed that Diaz would finally be returning to fight surging contender Dustin Poirier at November 3’s UFC 230 from NYC. The two were scheduled to appear at Friday’s 25th Anniversary Press Conference and did so, squaring off in a faceoff that had it feeling like Diaz was on the cusp of fighting after more than two years off.
But like it often does when the situation involves a Diaz brother, things were “all good” for only a short time. He stormed out of the presser when a promo for Conor McGregor’s UFC 229 return versus Khabib Nurmagomedov was airing, and soon tweeted he was off of UFC 230 with a classic ‘f*** the UFC.’ A video of Diaz sounding off on his employers soon surfaced, apparently having to do with the UFC failing to promote Diaz while Dana White claimed he repeatedly turned down fights while he was supposedly dealing with a lawsuit.
So there’s still some unpacking to do, but one former UFC champion can sympathize with Diaz. Miesha Tate spoke about the topic on Sirius XM Fight Nation (via MMA Fighting) and likened Diaz’ plight to her own when she was promised a title fight with Ronda Rousey in 2015:
“I would feel the same way as Nate does,” Tate said. “Nate has a different personality than I do, he’s expressive in a different way, but of course [I would be mad]. I remember when I threatened retirement because I was so pissed off that they had promised that I would fight Ronda and then they ended up switching that out and having Holly [Holm] but they didn’t tell me. It’s the same thing that happened to Nate, essentially, it’s just that Nate was in front of everybody. I was pissed too, believe me.”
The currently retired Tate believes Diaz is in a tough spot because the UFC will always have the final say and won’t care about the fighters more than what is best for business. Based on that dynamic, she said fighters can either accept it or retire – something Diaz has seemed close to more than once:
“I was mad but they don’t care,” Tate said. “They know that they have a strong arm in a lot of this and it doesn’t really matter. Or if they do care, it’s not enough. Like, ‘I’m sorry but this is what you have to do for business.’ You can’t really argue with them. They’re the ones who are gonna make the final decision, so what can you do? What can Nate do?
“For me it was a whirlwind of emotions, just trying to decide what I even wanted to do next because I felt like it was so unfair. Then it was just coming to terms with, ‘Well, life’s not fair. What do you want to do about it? Are you ready to retire now or not?’ And the truth was I wasn’t ready to retire at that time. Obviously I still went on to fight Jessica Eye after that and went on to win the title against Holly later, so I wasn’t ready to retire but it was just the frustration.”
Tate resolved the sticky situation and obviously went on to have a highly successful career as both the UFC and Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champions, but Diaz’ current spot remains unresolved. To make things even muddier, White recently said he has no idea what’s going on with Diaz, but Tate doesn’t think a conversation with the harsh UFC head man would really change things due to his brutal honesty:
“Having a talk with Dana White helps but it still stings because he’s not the one to have a filter on,” Tate concluded. “The conversation was like, ‘Yeah, but you’re not Ronda Rousey.’
“It’s part of just recognizing that. I have a different value than Ronda and hers is what it is and mine is what it is so I have to continue to work to build mine even more. What else can I do? Get back to the grind. You just try to leverage yourself as much as you can but there’s a point where you don’t have the leverage. You don’t have the final leverage, the UFC does.”
The fight that the MMA world wanted and needed is finally official.
Dana White let the cat out of the bag during the 25th Anniversary UFC press conference from Los Angeles, Califonia, last Friday (Aug. 3, 2018). Khabib Nurmagomedov (26-0) will defend his lightweight title against the returning Conor McGregor (21-3) in the main event of UFC 229 on Oct. 6 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
But don’t expect a big horse and pony show in the form of a World Tour similar to McGregor’s previous media whirlwind with Jose Aldo in the months preceding the biggest fight in MMA history. According to UFC President Dana White, there’s just not enough time for that.
“We don’t have time for a world tour,” UFC president Dana White said at the UFC 227 post-fight press conference. “These guys are going to fight the first week of October. Both guys are going to go into camp. We’ll do something fun, we’ll do some different stuff. We’re literally having a big meeting on Monday to get this stuff in order and get it going.”
A promotional bonanza probably isn’t going to be needed to help sell this fight. Fans and media members alike agree that if this fight does in fact happen, it should easily eclipse the MMA PPV record currently held by McGregor and Nate Diaz for their rematch at UFC 202.
The fight has to happen first, however, and after McGregor was arrested for assault when he threw a metal dolly through Khabib’s bus at UFC 223, a number of bad things could get in the way of that. White isn’t worried, however, claiming the UFC will be able to keep tension under control:
“We’re pretty confident that we can control what happens,” White said. “What happened in New York, obviously if you look at what happened, everyone was loading onto the buses, everything was done, and our staff still handled it pretty damn well for what was going down. We’re very aware. Nothing is going to happen. We’ll be good.”
Its impossible to tell just how long this fight has been in the works, but some insiders believe this fight was already a foregone conclusion in the UFC’s eyes, and for good reason, as it legitimately has a shot to be the biggest fight in the UFC’s twenty-five years.
For that reason, it just doesn’t need a world tour.
Yesterday, the UFC went big and announced the long-awaited returns of rivals Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz at their 25th Anniversary Press Conference from Los Angeles, California.
At least, that’s the plan for now, as Diaz soon claimed he wouldn’t be fighting at UFC 230 after walking out of the presser during the announcement of McGregor’s return. The Stockton bad boy soon went off on the UFC and Dana White for supposedly telling lies about him turning down fights while he was dealing with a lawsuit and failing to promote him effectively. So just like everything seemingly involving the Diaz brothers, nothing is for certain, although it seems like he will be back to fight Poirier this fall.
As for McGregor, well, his return was much more anticipated than the late-night revelation of Diaz’ return this week, with signs pointing to him returning to action against Nurmagomedov ever since he cleared up his assault charges from his UFC 223 melee in a Brooklyn, New York, courtroom last month. Regardless of the specifics of each, however, both come at a time when the UFC needs them most.
Pay-per-view (PPV) buys and television ratings have literally been at all-time lows in 2018, with July 7’s UFC 226 barely breaking 400,000 buys despite a historic champion vs. champion superfight in the main event and July 28’s UFC on FOX 30 drawing the lowest ratings in history even though it had two pivotal knockouts at the top of the billing. That’s all about to change, of course, as McGregor’s return against the undefeated “Eagle” could legitimately be the first UFC card to bring in 2 million buys. Even if it doesn’t, the Irishman’s return to the Octagon will almost assuredly save an otherwise disastrous year for UFC owners Endeavor like his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather did last year.
Diaz’ return a month later against Poirier, a perhaps lesser-known but maybe more exciting opponent in terms of in-cage action, is simply icing on the cake, and he reminded us why he’s so unique and valuable to the sport of MMA at the tail-end of his on-camera rant yesterday. Asked about the outcome of Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor, Diaz unleashed a classic tirade about how the outcome didn’t matter because both were his “b****’:
“I whipped one’s a** and I slapped the f*** outta the other one, so they’re both my little b*****s, that’s who I got. F***, right in his face, he didn’t do s***. Scared for his life, him and all his Russian friends. He’s from a third-world country, n****a, I’m from Stockton, he got his a** slapped, didn’t do s***. All their eyes lit up, didn’t do s***, his whole team, f****n’ all p*****s.”
Photo Credit: Joshua Dahl for USA TODAY Sports
Crude, some may claim, yet it’s a rant only Diaz could come out with and get so many heads turning, so his return is more than a breath of fresh air no matter what his in-cage record may state he deserves or doesn’t deserve.
The fight game has been waiting for Diaz to return since he lost a thin majority decision to McGregor at UFC 202 in August 2016, and he’s still the only man to defeat “The Notorious” in the Octagon. Part of that is because McGregor hasn’t competed in MMA since 2016 himself, and while his August 2017 boxing match with Mayweather. was a fun enough spectacle in its own right, the UFC and MMA as a whole have been aching to see their biggest star compete as they watched him go down a concerning path outside the cage.
He’s appeared to have righted that ship – at least for now – and will swoop in to save the year with quite possibly the biggest mixed martial arts contest of all-time.
Make no mistake, even though “The Eagle” is their biggest asset in their desired and expanding Russian market, the UFC wants McGregor to win and presumably face off against the winner of Diaz vs. Poirier a month later. Both would be rematches of fights he’s already won and the kind of massive business the UFC’s current ownership seems to be trying to manufacture out of thin air with their ridiculous creation of never-ending interim titles that are stipped from their winners as quickly as they are won.
But all the fake UFC titles in the world won’t even add up to one one-thousandth of one Conor McGregor, and we’re already seeing that the day after his return was announced.
Couple that with Diaz’ unexpected comeback to stir the pot, and you have all the ingredients to end 2018 with a unique mix of MMA action never before staged in one months’ span.
It’s been a brutal year for MMA and its fans; no serious follower of the sport could or would dispute that statement. All of that is about to turn around exactly at the right time, ladies and gentlemen.
Diaz appeared to take offense at the McGregor fight announcement, as he walked out of the press event when the promo for his longtime rival’s return was airing onscreen. Check it out from MMANYTT here:
Although his fight with surging lightweight contender Dustin Poirier at November’s UFC 230 was officially confirmed today, Nate Diaz claimed soon thereafter that he wasn’t actually fighting on the card while slamming his employers.
The reaction was supposedly due to the UFC announcing Conor McGregor long-awaited return against Khabib Nurmagomedov at October’s UFC 229, during which Diaz walked out of the press event. His actions sparked speculation that Diaz wanted to return at that card instead and garner the expected increase in pay-per-view revenue.
Whatever the reason, he’s got the MMA world talking as his return is supposedly already in jeopardy not even a full day after it was reported last night. Poirier soon responded to Diaz’ claim on social media as well, and his response may not be what you would expect from “The Diamond.”
Poirier actually agreed with Diaz, saying ‘f*** the UFC’ and claiming he wouldn’t fight at UFC 230 either:
