McGregor McRetires? No. But let's talk about him anyway.

[wandshogun09]

Like Silky, I loved the build up to Couture vs Toney. It was so ridiculous it was actually entertaining. And as much as everyone looks back and says the result was a foregone conclusion, I remember a fair few people at the time giving Toney a good shot on the basis of 'well he's a pro boxer and he'll be wearing the little UFC gloves'. I got the logic but he always had about a three second window to knock Randy out. And if he didn't land that perfect punch as Randy was coming in, he'd be dumped on his arse and that would be that. I even remember people using Toney's 'Lights Out' nickname to argue that he was some massive puncher, which he wasn't really. He was a seriously great boxer in his prime. And when he fought Roy Jones Jr in 94 it was considered a battle between the two top pound-for-pound boxers on the planet. But, despite him having some tremendous KOs on his record, he was never really thought of as a big knockout artist. More of a master of technique and defensive skills (which is mad when you hear how punch drunk he is now).

 

But yeah, the build up was brilliantly silly. With Toney storming out of interviews with Helwani, Toney carrying around a Barbie doll and saying it was Couture, the footage in the Countdown of Toney's 'grappling training', and this...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=NF5mq6cEDO4

 

Side check kicks

 

2010 was the most fun ever. It was all downhill from there until Dana's "We're back!" promo at the end of 2014.

I don't know about that. Maybe in terms of business things weren't so good between summer 2010 and early 2015, but there were some amazing periods in between. In fact, pretty much the whole years of 2011 and 2013 were fantastic. They seemed to be on this weird run where they'd have one great year, followed by a bit of a lacklustre one, then a great one, followed by another lacklustre one. 2012 and 2014 were the relatively cack years in that timeframe. I say relatively because even they had their good points, but they were definitely lacking something.

 

You look at 2011 though...

 

- Edgar vs Maynard 2 started the year off the right way. A genuine FOTY contender on the very first day of the year! Crazy fight, made all the more enjoyable because no-one saw it coming. Everyone expected a dull takedownfest by Maynard but it turned out to be a tremendous fight. Maybe the best in lightweight history.

 

- The UFC/WEC merger. This immediately bolstered the roster and injected new life into the cards. Adding the likes of Aldo, Faber, Cruz, Mighty Mouse, Cerrone, Pettis and Bendo to the roster was a huge win. It was a bit like when Benoit, Guerrero, Malenko and Saturn jumped over to the WWF in 2000. Just instantly added a new flavour to the cards and you could mix and match those guys for some great fights with the guys already on the roster. Which they took advantage of to full effect. Fights like Aldo vs Hominick, Faber vs Cruz 2, Bendo vs Guida and Diaz vs Cerrone that year were awesome.

 

- UFC 129 in Toronto was the biggest and highest attended card they'd ever done at this point. And still held that record until last year's Rousey vs Holm show. 55,000 people. And the card delivered big time. OK, GSP vs Shields wasn't a great way to end the night but Aldo vs Hominick was incredible, we got Machida knocking out Couture with a fucking crane kick of all things, Rory ragdolling Nate all over the place and there were all kinds of mental finishes on the undercard. The show was a huge success on all fronts.

 

- UFC's return to Brazil in the summer opened up the doors to another lucrative market for them. And the UFC 134 card they brought was one of those that just clicked. Talk about 'sending the fans home happy'. The Brazilians were on fire that night. Anderson easily walked through Okami in the main event, Shogun crushed Forrest in their rematch in about 90 seconds and even Big Nog, out of shape and coming off double hip surgery, knocked out Brendan Schaub and made him do the Flair Flop in maybe the most satisfying KO of all-time.

 

- Jones' rise really was in 2011. He'd looked great in 2009 and 2010 but to that point his best wins were over Stephan Bonnar, Vladimir Matyushenko and Brandon Vera. He started 2011 as a prospect who was untested at the top level. By the end of 2011 he was the youngest UFC champion ever and having had one of the best years of any MMA fighter ever. He beat the undefeated Ryan Bader in February. Then he battered Shogun to win the title in March. Submitted Rampage in September. Then choked Machida unconscious in December. I'm still not sure another fighter has had a year as unbelievable as Jones' 2011 was. It was scary to watch.

 

- Mad finishes were happening on seemingly every other show in 2011. The two that stick out most for me are Anderson's front kick KO on Belfort and Mir's comeback arm snapping kimura on Big Nog.

 

- Strikeforce being on life support in 2011 benefited the UFC greatly as well. By the end of the year they'd swooped in and poached Alistair Overeem, Dan Henderson, Nick Diaz and Cung Le. Four of Strikeforce's biggest stars.

 

- Shogun vs Hendo 1 was the UFC's version of Balboa vs Drago and it happened in 2011. Still my favourite MMA fight ever, I think.

 

- The FOX deal was signed in 2011 and the first show with Cain vs JDS 1 did monster ratings. Of course, them being on FOX doesn't make much of a difference to us over here but it was a huge moment for the UFC.

 

Then there was all the great fights that year.

 

- The nutty one round fights in Diaz vs Daley, Kongo vs Barry and Fedor vs Hendo. You had Wandy vs Cung Le, Hardy vs Lytle, Garcia vs Phan 2, Edgar vs Maynard 3 (which might've been even better than their second fight), Diaz vs Penn

 

Just a great year to be an MMA fan.

 

2013 was just as awesome IMO...

 

- They brought in the women, more specifically Ronda Rousey. And they got the most out of her that year. The fight with Carmouche (first women's fight in UFC history) was short and sweet and the build up they did was phenomenal. Maybe the best Primetime they've ever done. Then they had her and Miesha Tate coach TUF, which was one of the better seasons they've done in years. Then the Rousey vs Tate 2 fight in December was excellent as well. In some ways I thought it was even better than their first fight and Rousey snubbing Tate's offer of a handshake post-fight just left the door open for the feud to continue.

 

- Conor McGregor made his UFC debut. They stuck him on the unaired prelims on a FUEL TV card in Sweden. His fight would be streamed on Facebook. Yet he still managed to steal the show, knocking out Marcus Brimage with ease then talking the talk in the post-fight interview ("Hey Dana, 60 G's baby!") and the press conference ("I was collecting social welfare before this, I suppose now I can tell 'em to fuck off").

 

- GSP vs Diaz was a huge success. For all the moaning that Diaz didn't deserve a title shot, and he didn't, over a million people bought the PPV. Which proves it was the fight people wanted to see. The actual fight was too one-sided to be enjoyable really, it went about exactly as I always expected, but it needed to happen after years of shit talking. The build up to this fight was some of the best and most hilarious ever, IMO. Especially that conference call they did where Diaz rambled on like a madman. I loved it so much I've still got one of his quotes from that conference call in my sig.

 

- The end of the Spider's reign over the summer was nuts. Seeing Anderson Silva get knocked out was almost surreal after seeing him do that to so many fighters himself over the years. It wasn't so much a great moment for me, I guess it depends how much of an Anderson fan you are. But it was a proper Holy Shit moment that anyone who saw it in real time won't forget. The rematch even moreso with Anderson's horrible leg break. It's like the UFC version of the Kennedy assassination, everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when it happened.

 

- The UFC 20th Anniversary was a cool little period with old faces showing up and that brilliant documentary they put out. I hope they do a 20th Anniversary documentary for Pride next year but I'm not holding my breath for that one.

 

And again, all the great fights. 2013 might've been the best year for pure fight quality in UFC history. Jones vs Gustafsson, Wandy vs Stann, Bermudez vs Grice, JDS vs Hunt, Zingano vs Tate, Melendez vs Sanchez, GSP vs Hendricks, Hunt vs Struve, Hendricks vs Condit, Rousey vs Tate 2...the list goes on.

 

- Oh and Hunt vs Bigfoot 1 deserves its own separate mention. When I said 'I think' Shogun vs Hendo 1 is my favourite fight ever, this is the fight that makes me second guess that. Hunt and Bigfoot going to war for five rounds, covered in blood, barely able to stand, in a fight so close the judges couldn't even decide it...yeah, it's up there for me. Shogun vs Hendo and Hunt vs Bigfoot are #1 and #1a.

 

Apologies for being so long winded but 2011 and 2013 deserve some love. I think it's a common misconception that the UFC went a bit shit after 2010 and never picked up again until 2015. It was really just a pretty shit 2014 that seemed to kick them up the arse and make them decide to 'Go Big'. They've definitely made a serious effort to bring back the 'big fight atmosphere' over the last year or so.

[seanz25]

McGregor vs Mayweather superfight has picked up a fair bit of steam in the past 24 hours - http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/boxing/floyd-mayweather-conor-mcgregor-set-7910197

 

Not that I'm buying the story - for the record.

[d-d-d-dAz]

Some bookies are already taking odds on it, and the rags are saying it's as good as done.

 

I can't bring myself to believe it but, fuck, it'd be so weird.

 

If we do step into the parallel universe where this is a possibility, and it's at 145 lbs and it's Just boxing, likes being reported, I see Conor being very surprised about how a world class boxer looks..

 

Why am I even discussing this?

[Porkchopcash]

Would be hilarious to see that clown Mcgregor looking like he's swatting flies with his boxing gloves on. Ha Ha Ha.

[seanz25]

Would be hilarious to see that clown Mcgregor looking like he's swatting flies with his boxing gloves on. Ha Ha Ha.

Never seen you in here, but seeing as you hate McGregor you can stay the fuck away from here thanks. As it is we already have one McGregor hating prick. Don't we Dave?

[Chunk]

Sounds about as likely as the reports this week that Amir Khan wants a pro MMA fight on his record ...

[John Matrix]

He's a proper little wind up merchant ain't he our Conor...

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/i/status/729257923529060352/photo/1

[herbie747]

Yeah saw that - it's getting a bit lame now. It's not going to happen - everyone involved knows it (McGregor & his people, Mayweather & his people, Dana & UFC, etc), and most fans know it except the dumb ones & a few bandwagon tabloids. So he's just trying to make one last desperate attempt to put pressure on UFC over... probably UFC 200 still, even though that ship has sailed. He realises he's going to miss out on the biggest payday of his career to date. His next fight will still be huge, but not UFC 200 levels - especially if UFC insist he moves back down to FW.

[d-d-d-dAz]

Yeah, I don't know exactly when his gimmick changed from an all-conquering Don Juan figure with an unparalleled death grip on the business side of things to needy internet troll, but it's killing him in my eyes.

 

Wind it in.

[FUM]

Wonder if Conor realises he loses more fans than he gains from trolling?

[herbie747]

Yeah, it's not doing him any favours. I'm the biggest McGregor mark there is, but this is off-putting. He's becoming like Chael/Hogan/Piper/Russo, where nobody believes anything he says.

 

Same thing happened with Rhonda for different reasons - used to love her since I saw her in Strikeforce - she was so sound & humble - especially on Observer Radio & Rogan's podcast. She even retweeted me & replied to me on Twitter when she had 7k followers. I always stuck with my fandom even when others hated her - even after her bratty stint on TUF. But the Holm weigh-in put me off her a lot - the way she tried to bully Holm, but Holm was having none of it, so then she started crying. Pathetic. And then the PVZ story last week put me off her completely. It's just sad.

[herbie747]

Wonder if Conor realises he loses more fans than he gains from trolling?

People will still buy his fights though - so he won't lose buys - just fans, as you said. It's more of a credibility issue. Up to now he just exaggerated numbers a bit. Now he's flat-out lying.

[the_mole]

He might be able to make more money on A less stacked PPV, Brock did it a few times and Boxing has been doing it forever.

 

Say he does 1.5 million for UFC 202,He might only need to share that with Nate Diaz.

 

Or he does 2 million for UFC 200, he has to share with Nate again and potentially Cain, Meisha, Aldo & Edgar and if they don't get a cut those four will get between $500,000 and $200,000, then the rest of the card is stacked so your talking another few million.

 

I remember the Dillashaw-Sato PPV that obviously bombed but if you looked at the fighter payments, they were nearly a $million less than a free card, that was stacked because it was going against Bellator on the same night in the same state and had Jacare, Mousasi, Overeem & Rothwell, so the PPV probably didn't bomb as they got Fox money and the countries like here pay the same amount for UFC 200 and UFC 177.

[herbie747]

He won't have to share anything though - his guarantee is his guarantee. And his PPV cut is his PPV cut. X amount of $ per PPV buy is still the same number. But UFC 200 will do the most, which is why he wants on it.

If UFC puts too many "PPV cut" deal fighters on the same show, that's their problem. But right now it's only Tate & Jones (?) & Cormier. Usually it's the champs & a few others on a PPV cut. And the latter 2 would't have been on UFC 200 if McGregor was.

 

 

 

potentially Cain, Meisha, Aldo & Edgar

Only Meisha would be on a PPV cut here.

[the_mole]

We don't know who gets a cut, Overeem when he first signed had a PPV cut, the only reason it's known is Overeem & Golden Glory had a law suit and it became public knowledge.

 

He also had a million dollar signing bonus, split over 3 fights that weren't part of his fight purse.

 

It's not insane to think Cain might have one, given he's a two time championAnd has been around the title for half a decade