McGregor’s the man

The tricky part for the UFC in all this is that for the first time in its history, it feels like they need a fighter more than the fighter needs them. Here’s why McGregor holds so much sway at the moment.

Cash is King

UFC 189 and UFC 194, both headlined by McGregor, reset the record for largest gate for a UFC event in Las Vegas, with the latter topping $10M. No one else in the company pulls in that kind of coin.

PPV Numbers

In addition to doing bank at the box office, pay-per-view events headlined by the SBG Ireland product have been outstanding, with UFC 189 doing over 800,000 buys and UFC 194 moving 1.2 million units, with reports indicating UFC 196 did even more. Again, no one else in the company pulls in those kind of numbers.

Mainstream Attention

TIME Magazine doesn’t just retweet UFC fighters at random, but they bounced McGregor’s retirement announcement back into the Twitter-verse on Tuesday. ESPN personalities were doing the same. That’s attention McGregor and only a couple of others command.

European Growth

McGregor has become “the guy” for the sport in Europe, even though, as my colleague Simon Head says, he never fights in Europe. He’s sparked an interest in this sport in Ireland and the UK like no one else could, and they can’t just have that fall away overnight.

Damage Done, Opportunities Lost

Time heals all wounds, but the trail of featherweight victims McGregor has left in his wake can’t be overlooked. Neither can the fights that would be left on the table.

Not only have guys like Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes been taken down a peg in losing to McGregor, but you’re also missing out on bouts with Frankie Edgar and whoever holds the lightweight title, which he was supposed to challenge for last month.