Ever since Conor McGregor’s UFC debut on April of 2013, we’ve hardly been able to jam the breaks or unstrap the seatbelts on what has been a truly meteoric and sometimes breathless rise to behold.
However, while he bides his time away from the UFC now, reportedly in limbo with the powers-that-be and preparing himself for impending fatherhood, we have been afforded some breathing room to gain perspective on his exploits so far.
Almost 4 years after Conor McGregor – armed with an uncanny yet audacious ability to predict the outcome of his fights and a sniper rifle of a left hand – made his mark on the UFC, we can finally take a step back today and quiz ourselves on what his legacy has actually been.
Don’t get me wrong here. I realize that thrusting a word like ‘legacy’ into the mix betrays a tone of finality that doesn’t resonate with the stage that his career is at. After all, he’s just 28 and there are many years of athletic competition at the highest level still to be had.
But make no mistake about it when I say that beneath all the brazen “truth talk”, uncharted charisma and the thrill-a-minute fighting style, Conor McGregor is a man that has been sculpting a resplendent legacy for himself.
The turning point
In a field that is predicated by the basest and most feral of instincts, teetering precariously on the line between the highest form of athletic competition and – let’s face it – the taint of bloodsport, it is quite a cruel twist that would dictate that the participants – bravest and lion-hearted among men and women– are taken for granted by the company they work for.
Reined in to function without separate sponsorship deals, ordered to fight on the behest of the company – many times carrying injuries that would leave most men bedridden – and hardly well compensated for placing their bodies and minds on the line, employees of the UFC are fighters in the truest sense of the word, both inside and outside of the Octagon.
It is in front of this rather dreary backdrop that Conor McGregor and his throngs of faithful Irish fanatics rose to prominence. And his journey thus far, has only gone from strength to strength.
From a talented free-agent that the UFC was willing to take a gamble with, to a breakout star whom they were willing to bet on; from an established pay-per-view draw who they were only too happy to push to the front of the line, to a Champion whose buccaneering style became emblematic of the company’s own ambitions.
But the UFC thought that the fairytale would end there, or at least, wanted it to. Only, Conor McGregor had other ideas.
He took to his stardom like a fish would to freshwater, a twang of destiny resonating across how seamlessly a pulmber – not 4 years ago – had grown accustomed to being at the eye of the media storm and the focus of the sporting world.
It was then that his relationship with the UFC began to sour. A flat-out refusal to do excessive media duties during the preparation for his rematch with Nate Diaz-led to him being cut from the UFC 200 mega card without a hint of hesitation.
It wasn’t until the UFC proceeded to pull absolutely no punches in attempting to show McGregor his place, did it became apparent that his growth was rubbing them the wrong way. But instead of unsettling the cocky Irishman, all the UFC 200 spurn did was light a fire under him.
The battle of wills
What Conor McGregor and the UFC are embroiled in currently doesn’t just appear to be a stand-off due to financial reasons. While it is quite impossible to divine the inner workings of their relationship or the extent of contractual obligation that he is under, it is quite clear that McGregor and the new WME-IMG regime do not see eye to eye.
His first demand to the new owners was that he be wrapped into the fold of shareholders in the company. Conor McGregor wasn’t content being just the highest paid employee of the company; he envisioned himself on equal footing with its management.
Tellingly, his demands have been met with stony silence thus far. No one seems to be clued in as to where McGregor stands with the UFC brass, and as he revealed in his razzmatazz-laden PPV interview with Ariel Helwani, neither does the Irishman.
It is an unkind plight that has befallen Conor McGregor, whose expeditious growth as an icon and a brand has swept aside the cobwebs for the UFC to bloom as a global sport and truly embrace the spotlight that comes with the territory, much like how John Cena’s name punctured the mainstream bubble at the advent of the PG era, only for the WWE to follow suit.
Many would offer up the names of fighters like Brock Lesnar, Georges St-Pierre or Ronda Rousey, whose global appeal preceded the irrepressible Irishman’s and also point out – quite correctly – that UFC was the fastest growing sport in the world even before he burst onto the scene.
The UFC may have already been the fastest growing sport in the world in the past 5 years, but Conor McGregor made sure that absolutely everyone knew about it.
As such, it seems rather ironic that the fans seem more privy to this fact than the UFC. And the next phase of Conor McGregor’s UFC career, if there is to be one, depends wholly on who the victor of this tug of war between the ambitious Irishman and the owners of the company would be.
Perched on a knife’s edge
With Ronda Rousey looking a far cry from the undefeated and invulnerable pay-per-view attraction that she once was, especially after her second successive wash-out at the hands of a capable striker, the UFC has to cope with the stark reality that they have lost both of their most dependable cash cows within the span of 2 months.
Confronted with a near-insurmountable mountain of debt that fuelled an eye-popping $4.2 billion price tag for the company, it isn’t any surprise really that WME-IMG has resorted to trimming the roster at a worrisome clip and overlooking meritocracy in favor of money fights.
Meanwhile, Conor McGregor may have chosen to leave his UFC career hanging while he prepares himself for the daunting task of fatherhood, but has still managed to stay in the news by teasing that the next time he competes professionally, would only be against Floyd Mayweather.
Exploiting the eternally mistrustful approach that both the sports have always had towards one another, this fight featuring boxing’s standard bearer and MMA’s poster boy has already captured the attention of fight fans around the world – and it has hardly even been confirmed.
Plenty of witty jabs have been traded between the camps on social media, as is to be fully expected from two confrontational and outspoken fighters like McGregor and Mayweather, although little else of any concrete value even suggests that this fight is close to being finalized.
Just when it seems that the water couldn’t get any murkier, Dana White spoke up for the UFC, swearing that there is no way Conor McGregor can fight Floyd Mayweather without their blessing. In riposte, the cheeky Irishman teased the newly instated Ali Act to suggest that he can indeed be his own man should he choose to pursue the matter legally.
Needless to say, the verbal jousting didn’t really help the impasse.
However, what it all ultimately boils down to is this: will McGregor emerge from underneath the shade of the UFC umbrella to make what could be the highest-grossing fight in combat sport history against Floyd Mayweather a two-party affair?
Or will the UFC find a way of weaseling itself into the mix and sharing the spoils?
While we wait on official developments to know a definitive answer to this, one thing has been made abundantly clear meanwhile...
Rise, rise against the machine
Today, the Irishman is heading the charge of a sport that is threatening to take the world by storm, and while the UFC has played a pivotal role in placing him there, it looks now like the company is the one desperately looking to cling on for the free ride.
The UFC may have shot down potential MMA-Boxing crossover super fights in the past without second thought, like the one touted between Roy Jones Jr and Anderson Silva, but they seem quite intent on inserting themselves into the equation should a showdown between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather materialize. It beguiles as to why they wouldn’t even entertain the thought of pitting the consensus GOAT of MMA against a boxing extraordinaire, when they’re all too willing to latch on to McGregor’s coat tails as he contrives to set up a showdown against The Best Ever.
Sure, the landscape of the sport and its place in the world has changed drastically since then, but one can’t help but feel that the UFC’s enthusiasm this time around is propelled by more than just the bumper payday that tags along with a McGregor-Mayweather showdown.
Regardless of timeline, pitting an MMA star against a boxer in a boxing fight always poses a very real threat to the UFC’s credibility. And when the star in question is the poster boy of the company and the man standing opposite him arguably the greatest defensive boxer of all time, it hardly makes sense – other than financially – to go through with the idea.
And yet, the same company that called off McGregor’s involvement in UFC 200 to make the first move in their war of attrition, within a span of one short year, has been left scrapping to be involved in his proposed superfight against Floyd Mayweather, and not left behind.
By virtue of grinding out a hard fought victory against Nate Diaz and putting Eddie Alvarez to the sword in a historic effort at Madison Square Garden, it would seem that Conor McGregor has well and truly turned the tables in the power struggle with his employers.
The UFC, and MMA by extension, has demarcated itself from the chaos that is professional boxing today by virtue of being a unified front for the sport; a single promotion that showcases all the top tier talent in the industry under one banner, thereby maintaining integrity and order.
But isn’t it almost poetic then that the sport’s biggest breakout star would be the one to disrupt that? To throw a stone on the proverbial beehive... to finally rise against the machine?
The Fallout
While some may raise an eyebrow at how quickly the pendulum of momentum has swung to the Irishman’s side, he for one wouldn’t be too flustered or surprised by the outcome. After all, it was him who got on the microphone after disposing of a game Diego Brandao at UFC Dublin in 2014, and reeled off the prophetic phrase that has never rung more true than it does today.
“We’re not here to take part, we’re here to take over!”.
And true enough, Conor McGregor’s near-inhuman ability to bend the universe to his will has sparked a revolution in the UFC.
A begrudging, sometimes not-so-obvious one, but a revolution nonetheless.
Fighters are more vocal, having been woken up – rather rudely I might add – to the need to market themselves better and to make their voices heard. They have become much more aware of their status as independent contractors, rather than employees, and have become increasingly willing to embrace free agency rather than view a run in the UFC as the holy grail of their careers.
As esteemed MMA journalist Ariel Helwani often proclaims, the squeaky wheel does indeed get the grease.
This realisation on the part of the fighters, however, hasn’t made Conor McGregor a popular man. If anything, the target on his back is bigger than ever, now that almost everyone within touching distance of Lightweight is lobbying for a fight against him. And with all these potential superfights getting bandied about and weightclasses being relegated to little more than a line in the sand, it is important that we do not lose sight of who is responsible for this massive paradigm shift in the sport of MMA.
Now, it is pretty common knowledge that Conor McGregor polarizes opinion quite strongly. Some people support him, living vicariously through his monumental triumphs and suffering the brunt of his losses on their metaphorical chins. Others would like nothing more than watch him fall on the sword that has been sandpapered by his own larger-than-life persona and ambitions.
To whichever category you may belong to, the onus is on us as honest fans of the sport to rid ourselves of emotion and realise that we’re privy to greatness unfolding right before our eyes.
Love him or hate him, it is imperative that we understand that while Conor McGregor wasn’t part of the foundation that gave the sport of MMA legs to stand on in the past, he has most certainly become the man on whose tattooed back it is being carried into the future.
