McGregor is certainly taking this phrase and running with it literally causing every featherweight fighter and let’s be honest every lightweight fighter even going as far to call it ‘the 155 stuck in the mud division’ to despise him, or at least want to fight him to make money off him. At the UFC Go BIG press conference there were literally fighter’s cueing up at the chance to face Conor and openly saying they’d fight him just for the money. McGregor's war of words even included a few verbal sparring sessions with current lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos as well as the current Number one contender at 155 pounds Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. Of course this can be taken one of two ways, the first way to take it is fighters selling out just for a massive payday or secondly it drives competition in the division to want to fight in the so called “money fight” and people wanting to earn their way to fight him, especially if he becomes the undisputed featherweight champion. It would give so much more value to a division having a champion that is a huge draw plus he appears to be the UFC President Dana White’s best friend at the moment because of all the money he’s making for the UFC, so that doesn’t exactly make things worse for the Crumlin man.
I mean look how happy he looks with the two people who’s making his company unbelievably wealthy. He won’t be a happy man if Conor loses as well. So I suppose what I am trying to get at is there is no doubting that McGregor is a talented human being, and if you need anyone to tell you that there is only one man in the world who could tell you how great he is, and that is 'The Notorious' Conor McGregor. The future is bright for the Dublin lad. He’s in negotiations with the UFC to sign a 100 million dollar contract which would be absolutely insanely crazy money to pay a man, who might end up losing all the fights he is contracted to fight. Doubtful I know, but as seen, anything can happen inside the octagon. Conor McGregor will always be the man who in his own words said there are grannies who can detail you in how to do a single leg take down because of him and has taken MMA to the mainstream attention here in Ireland. So I suppose he is good for the sport at the moment but how long will it last?
Author: Brendan O’Keeffe - 4th year BB (Hons) in Recreation and Sport Management student.