So UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor has decided to wage war against his employers, it was revealed recently. McGregor, who staged a live Pay-Per-View interview with well-known MMA reporter Ariel Helwani last week said his next bout will not be inside the Octagon, but rather that he is targeting a multi-million dollar showdown with boxing icon Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Yet immediately after getting wind of McGregor’s intentions, UFC President Dana White immediately offered his reaction. Since McGregor is still under contract with the UFC, White is not willing to allow McGregor to setup a Mayweather bout without his involvement.
McGregor has come up with a plan to circumvent his contractual obligations to the UFC. He instead plans to put up McGregor Promotions to self-promote the mega crossover bout. This will in effect remove the UFC and White from any equation.
After learning of this, White then vowed to battle McGregor every step of the way.
“I’ve always shown Conor nothing but respect, and if he wants to go down that road with us, let me tell you, it will be an epic fall,” White told MMAjunkie.
Historically, White has a lot of power and influence and he could ruin or end a fighter’s career if he chooses. He is after all the head honcho of the biggest MMA promotion in the world. If McGregor does indeed choose to traverse this path, there exists a number of outcomes.
“I don’t know. It’s not up to me,” said White, when asked if McGregor was serious about his plans.
Let’s take a look at Five Possible Outcomes From Conor McGregor’s War Against The UFC.
McGregor Loses Mental Edge, Gets Distracted by Business and Loses His Mojo
Unbeknownst to most casual fans, there is a very crude business side to combat sports. The business involves promoting fights. Because it’s not enough that two fighters risk their lives inside a steel cage. There has to be drama involved too. It’s human nature.
The same goes with McGregor. Although the Irishman is a master self-promotion, it doesn’t equate to being effortless for him. A fair amount of time and resources is invested by McGregor so that fans remain interested in him. There comes a point however, when the business side takes a toll on the fighting side.
A fighter can only promote so much, the rest of his time has to be devoted to training. McGregor himself discovered this, when he oversold his first matchup against Nate Diaz. Because McGregor focused so heavily on the promotion of the bout, he neglected training. As such, it reflected in his performance as Diaz was able to choke him out until he tapped.
In the rematch, McGregor even refused media appearances and retreated to his own personal training quarters in the middle of nowhere to focus on preparing for the fight. Who’s to say this doesn’t happen again?
McGregor is in very deep in the whole self-promotion aspect of MMA. And now with a potential Mayweather bout, it could get very exhausting for him. Let’s say McGregor once again gets caught up in the hoopla. Guys like Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tyron Woodley would beat him worse than Nate did.
