mma / Columns

Conor McGregor: The Hero of MMA

November 12, 2016 | Posted by Jeremy Lambert

Does everyone realize that Conor McGregor is an MMA hero? We don’t deserve someone like Conor in this trash sport. But, we have him, and we should appreciate him while he’s still here.

When Conor fights Eddie Alvarez this weekend, it’ll be his third fight of the year. The other two bouts were instant classics against Nate Diaz. The fight against Alvarez has the potential to be just as good, if not better, than the two Diaz fights.

After back-to-back wars with one of the toughest and most durable fighters in MMA today, it would have been easy for Conor to sit on the sidelines for the rest of the year. He could have healed up, counted his money, and waited for UFC to come begging to him for a return. That’s what Diaz is doing. Instead, Conor will once again move up in weight and step into the cage against the best lightweight in the world.

Everyone wants to complain about Conor holding up the featherweight division, and I get it. I want to see McGregor vs. Aldo 2 about as much as anyone not named Samer Kadi. But don’t misplace your anger towards McGregor. Blame the UFC for letting him call his own shots, don’t blame him for calling the shot. He’s not ducking Aldo or holding up the division, he’s simply trying to make history and money. Can you blame the guy?

For years we ridiculed the UFC for failing to put together Georges St. Pierre vs. Anderson Silva. Whenever it looked close, St. Pierre would complain about having to put on the weight or Silva would turn in a bad performance and Dana would come up with a bullshit excuse that Anderson, “didn’t deserve” the St. Pierre fight. There was always the, “he hasn’t cleaned out the division” excuse when, in reality, no division is ever cleaned out. It’s pretty hypocritical of us to blame the UFC, Silva, and St. Pierre for that fight not happening, but then complain when a guy is willing to move up in weight and the UFC puts together a champion vs. champion fight.

Conor doesn’t give a fuck about the weight or Dana’s rules. He had no problem moving up to 155 or 170 if it meant a bigger fight. He beat two of the top three guys in the division and decided he cleaned it out. He talked his way into big fight after big fight and had the skills to back-up his talk. The featherweight champion fighting the lightweight champion should be a big deal, so why are we so caught up in criticizing Conor for moving up and wanting this fight?

Why aren’t we criticizing Eddie for accepting this fight? He’s taking a fight against a featherweight instead of facing a true lightweight. There are plenty of deserving lightweight contenders, why isn’t Eddie fighting one of them? He must be afraid. Or, he must be really smart because he knows that Conor will be the biggest payday of his life.

McGregor’s not scared of Aldo. He knocked the guy out in 13 seconds. As tough and as dangerous as Aldo is, there’s no way anyone can believe that Conor is afraid of him when he was willing to fight him once, knocked him out, and has proven time and time again that he’ll fight anyone, anywhere, and at any weight. His willingness to move up to 155, and 170 before that, pretty much proves that he’s not afraid of challenging himself against the best fighters.

UFC 205 will likely be the biggest buyrate in company history. All thanks to Conor. This man has saved MMA in 2016. UFC 196 barely does 300,000 buys if Conor decides that he doesn’t want to fight after Rafael dos Anjos pulled out and Holly Holm vs. Miesha Tate becomes the headliner. UFC 202 doesn’t outperform UFC 200 (a show that underperformed thanks to McGregor vs. Diaz 2 getting pushing back) by 500,000 buys if Conor sulks about his loss and doesn’t want an immediate rematch against Nate Diaz. And UFC 205 would be lucky to crack 250,000 buys if Conor says he needs the rest of the year off to heal up and Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Thompson and Eddie Alvarez vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov are the headlining fights.

The impact that McGregor has had on the UFC in this year alone is greater than the impact of 99% of fighters entire career.

He may lose on Saturday, but he moved up in weight, saved the company once again, and made the walk. And no one can criticize him for making that walk.

Follow me on twitter @jeremylambert88 to learn my inside jokes.

article topics :

Conor McGregor, Jeremy Lambert