Win or lose, Mcgregor still major force in UFC
POIRIER REMATCH
It’s entirely unclear whether winning or losing has any appreciable impact on Conor Mcgregor’s ability to draw eyeballs to his fights.
His meteoric rise through the UFC’S featherweight and then lightweight division established him as one of the most exciting talents in mixed martial arts. Becoming the first fighter to ever hold championship belts in two divisions at the same time is central to the entire mythology that surrounds the Irishman.
That was a long time ago, though. He won that second belt way back in November 2016 and he’s only had his hand raised once in the nearly five years since that magical night at Madison Square Garden.
A loss in boxing to Floyd Mayweather only seemed to boost Mcgregor’s public profile. A bad defeat to Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018 did little to diminish his drawing power, as evidenced by the massive audience that tuned in for his next fight, a win over Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone last year.
Then, Mcgregor was knocked out by Dustin Poirier in January of this year. It was a brutal loss, but at least it set up a third fight between the two lightweights — Mcgregor previously beat Poirier back in 2014 — and will surely earn him a lucrative payday on Saturday night at UFC 264.
A loss Saturday, though, would surely put a dent in the perception of Mcgregor as a legitimate contender in the 155-pound division, but will that be enough to impact his drawing power? Does that matter to a man who is already reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars?
One way or another, it’s clear that Mcgregor doesn’t like the way the loss to Poirier looks on his record.
“I don’t give a f--- about him, to be honest,” Mcgregor said at a pre-fight press conference on Thursday. “I don’t give a rat’s ass about him. He’s Buster Douglas. He’s Buster Douglas is what he is and that’s the way he’s going to go down. He’s going to be known for that. It was a fluke win and I’m going to correct it on Saturday night.”
What does Mcgregor have to do to correct it? That’s a little hard to say. He pressured Poirier early in their January bout and threw big punches with real intent. Poirier weathered the storm, though, and threw a barrage of leg kicks that wore Mcgregor down before finishing him with a flurry in the second round.
Mcgregor has said he was more focused on boxing than MMA heading into that fight, although if that’s true it’s not really an excuse. The question is largely about how much he can actually have added to his arsenal in half a year.
Counting him out would be ludicrous, though. Mcgregor holds real power in his hands and is the type of fighter who can put an opponent away at any moment. He seemed adamant on Thursday that his only plan was to do what he always tries to do and knock Poirier out cold.