The UFC Are Not Impressed That Conor McGregor is Refusing to Engage With Media in His Pre-Fight Preparation to Fight Khabib Nurmagamedov…
This is what happens when you create a monster: they break loose of their shackles and start raining carnage. Conor McGregor is reportedly infuriating the UFC because he is refusing to co-operate with attempts to organize media events before he fights Khabib Nurmagamedov.
McGregor will fight the Russian lightweight champion in Las Vegas on October 6, in the T-Mobile Arena. The last time McGregor fought was in the same venue, albeit in the code of boxing against Floyd Mayweather.
In that fight, he earned a sweet $100 million. To put that in perspective: it’s ten thousand times more than what a new UFC fighter will earn in their first couple of fights. He’s actually doing less than co-operating. He’s not even answering the phone to them. That’s pretty funny really.
Media Fatigue
McGregor really isn’t bothered dealing with the press. One of the most noticeable aspects of his previous fights is the massive amount of build-up that surrounds them. He went on world tours with the likes of Jose Aldo and Mayweather. These were intensely draining for ‘The Notorious’.
He also infamously retired for a couple of days after going AWOL when he was supposed to be promoting UFC 200. He was subsequently discovered to be training in Iceland during what was probably the lowest point of his relationship with the promotion (yes – even more so than the whole dolly incident).
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Not Answering
The Irish former double champion is refusing to even answer the phone to the UFC. He is expected to appear at a press conference in the first week of September, but as of yet, nothing has been finalized. Dave Meltzer reported:
“One of the reasons you haven’t seen much in the way of interviews and such is that McGregor has not agreed to do anything. There are no press conferences scheduled because McGregor at this point hasn’t agreed to them. There is a lot of frustration within the UFC about McGregor’s attitude, but in the end, he’s got the leverage and the ticket sales and secondary market results only give him more leverage.
The feeling is that this may be the biggest non-boxing PPV of all-time, and the only reason it wouldn’t be is that McGregor hasn’t been pushing it hard. McGregor was able to get a larger piece of the action for this fight than any of his UFC fights to date, so there is a direct correlation more than ever between his work in promoting the fight and his pocket book, but this may also show that he knows he’s in a real fight and doesn’t want to break training.”
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Deal With It
Unfortunately for the UFC, they’re just going to have to suck it up and deal with it. McGregor is a law unto himself as we all know. He really doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him because he’s laughing all the way to the bank.
Anyway, this fight effectively promotes itself. Less is often more when it comes to trying to excite the fans. He hasn’t fought in an Octagon for two years, but he’s still relevant and arguably the most famous MMA fighter of all time. Will it break those magic Pay-Per-View records? We’ll have to wait and see.
