Conor McGregor sat on a stage below Madison Square Garden on Tuesday evening, clutching a title belt that should no longer be his and vowing to snatch another fighter’s from the table before him. And is there any doubt who holds the power in the UFC these days?
On 12 November, the UFC will finally stage an event in New York. As the organization’s president, Dana White, waved his hand around two rows of fighters he handpicked for the card – his biggest ever – there was only one who mattered. McGregor sat in the front, just to White’s left, wearing a pinstripe suit and aviator glasses. He pumped his fist, he waved his hands, he pounded the table. And the crowd of more than 1,000 New Yorkers boomed at his every “fuck” and chanted his name. He turned his head toward White, smirked then gazed into the lights.
“Four point two billion dollars! That’s what I’m worth to this company!” he cried, repeating the price WME-IMG reportedly paid for the UFC this summer.
He can do whatever he wants in an organization that usually makes its fighters beg. The UFC needs his face on the Madison Square Garden marquee more than he needs it himself. No fighter is more vital to the company if they are going to get an instant payback on that $4.2bn in seat sales and pay-per-view clicks. Several times White has said that McGregor must defend his belt at 145lb or relinquish it. This only seems fair: McGregor won the featherweight belt in December and is on his third fight without having to defend the title. If this was anyone else in the UFC, the belt would have likely been yanked away by now.
Instead, McGregor persists with this quest to become the first UFC fighter to hold two belts at the same time, and it seems no one wants to tell him no. Rather than the rematch he supposedly owes to José Aldo, the interim title holder at 145lbs – who he knocked out in 13 seconds at UFC 194 – he insisted on the lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, a man he then mocked on Tuesday as “a broke, jealous fighter” who he would knock out in the first round.
“I’m going to wrap one [belt] around one shoulder and wrap one around the other shoulder, and they’ll need an army to pull them off of me!” he screamed.
And given the way the bawdy mob in the Garden’s theater roared at this declaration, it’s likely he might just get away with it, too. Who’s going to slap down the cash cow as he holds a New York crowd in his hand and the pay-per-view buttons on the remote click faster than anyone can count? Aldo, as a great champion for more than six years, deserves another McGregor fight. But he won’t get one. Not now. Not maybe ever. McGregor is supposed to return the featherweight belt after his fight with Alvarez, it’s hard to imagine he will ever give it back. It’s hardly surprising that Aldo now wants out of his UFC contract.
So there was McGregor on Tuesday, barely a month after his win over Nate Diaz in UFC 202, strutting as much as he ever has. The Las Vegas fights have almost grown stale for him, and it is clear New York was always his next destination. He basked in the blast of the Garden theater crowd on Tuesday, playing to it, feeding it. The other fighters on the stage, champions many of them, had become his props, randomly selected for searing lampooning.
“He didn’t even negotiate new money for himself, imagine that!” McGregor cried, glaring at Alvarez before turing his gaze to the other fighters, all in suits like himself. “Look everybody up here! They’re all dressed like me. They’re all trying to talk like me. They’re all trying to be me. This is a lottery fight and this man took it on his last contract. Imagine that. Imagine getting the biggest fight in the history of the game and saying: ‘Shut your mouth, kid.’”
When featherweight contender Jeremy Stephens dared to take a swipe, saying the Irishman only wins on TKOs while he actually knocks people out, McGregor exploded.
Everyone is looking for a shot at Conor McGregor at the #UFC205 presser! https://t.co/sHjYqD5xbH
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) September 27, 2016
“Who the fuck is that guy?” McGregor thundered. “Who the fuck is that?”
There is a lot of Donald Trump in McGregor. They have many of the same tricks: the talking over opponents, the rude interruptions, the flair for overstatement and the flamboyant assertions of personal wealth (the Irishman, it must be said, has displayed none of the presidential candidate’s petty prejudice). “I’m closing in on $40m this year,” McGregor said with no corroborating evidence to support his claim. Maybe he has made this much. Maybe he hasn’t. On Tuesday it didn’t matter. The UFC has finally come to New York and it is guaranteed to have the only headliner who counts. As long as McGregor is in the cage the money will follow, José Aldo and what is right with the 145lb belt be damned.
If McGregor wants to drape two belts over his shoulder to carry a show then he will probably get the two belts. The $4.2bn machine moves on, and more and more it looks like McGregor is driving it.
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