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


Supremo

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Full details here - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/26/sports/conor-mcgregor-ufc.html

The rumours on Sherdog, CheckHook, WhatsApp and in the Irish press appear to be mostly accurate. The leaked news report, McGregor being arrested in mid-January, the identity and location of the hotel, etc. 

 

 

Edited by jimufctna24
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So I've read alot into this as connor really is one of my favourite sports stars of all time thanks to his personality, how he did press conferences and that side of it he was a character and love him or hate him for it he got me everytime.

 

Reading recently about him being told he would Co main event too me justseems so dumb and I get absolutely why he has said no that's not happening. He is a person that when he's on a poster the average person would buy and watch because of how big of a name he is. He generated so much money and smashed ppv buys to all time highs and he is saying he deserves to be treated and respected for that reason.

 

I know on here there's alot of mixed reviews for him but I agree with this decision and like everyone else I do believe he will be back 

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22 minutes ago, ColinBollocks said:

We discussed this the other month. Again, you just hope for his young family he isn't a rapist. Some of the rumoured details in that particular case are grim.

Also:

Interesting the dig at the end there.

That's a very, very weird statement. The article Helwani linked makes it very clear as to why the story hadn't been reported beforehand (Irish law regarding naming suspects without conviction). Decides instead to talk about the prospect of Conor fighting again as opposed to providing any sort of denial toward the allegation. Very strange.

Horrible incident. I hope for the sake of his wife and two children there isn't any truth to the accusation, though with the spiral his life has been on in the past few years, it wouldn't surprise me to see this be proven true. Sounds like there could be a case building on him though, the article details that police have gathered evidence from his room and also possess camera footage.

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This latest retirement nonsense is bound to be almost entirely linked to the UFC's new PPV deal with ESPN. 

Internet PPV sales account for somewhere in the region of 20% of total PPV sales for the UFC. 

The UFC simply won't sell as many PPV's through ESPN alone, as they normally do when using DISH, DIRECT TV etc plus the online sales. It's a great deal for them as they are being paid a flat fee on the front end plus a split with ESPN on the back end, but it's a terrible deal for the fighters, as PPV points on less PPV's is a pay cut. Unless they have leverage over the UFC, they aren't getting a renegotiated deal until their current one expires, and the leverage anybody has, is now much lower than it was, because the UFC no longer have the need to absolutely have to put on the biggest PPV's possible in order to have a good year. 

The expectations I've heard on podcasts and radio shows etc, are that this deal to the UFC is worth around the equivalent of a 500,000 buy PPV every month. That's pretty much a number they are only hitting between one and three times per year these days. The UFC are delighted with this deal and have more power than ever. They aren't giving any of that front end money to the fighters, at least not yet. . . that's what Conor and his management have realised, and no doubt are trying to bring about a situation to renegotiate. 

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11 hours ago, WeeAl said:

They aren't giving any of that front end money to the fighters, at least not yet. . . that's what Conor and his management have realised, and no doubt are trying to bring about a situation to renegotiate. 

See if he'd mentioned that in his retirement Tweet, about how the UFC are shafting the fighters, he'd have went from zero to hero.

If that's the case, of course.

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13 hours ago, AdamTH17 said:

That's a very, very weird statement. The article Helwani linked makes it very clear as to why the story hadn't been reported beforehand (Irish law regarding naming suspects without conviction). Decides instead to talk about the prospect of Conor fighting again as opposed to providing any sort of denial toward the allegation. Very strange.

Horrible incident. I hope for the sake of his wife and two children there isn't any truth to the accusation, though with the spiral his life has been on in the past few years, it wouldn't surprise me to see this be proven true. Sounds like there could be a case building on him though, the article details that police have gathered evidence from his room and also possess camera footage.

I actually like the response. It is very, "we aren't giving this the time of day". I don't think it is strange at all. 

It could be that you're right and it is proven to be true but that isn't what I took from it. The police would collect CCTV and look for evidence in the room regardless if he was guilty or innocent. 

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Seems his latest retirement announcement is looking more and more like gamesmanship with each passing day, with the reason looking to be that he believes he should own a part of the company.

Quote

“You know, I was surprised,” White told TMZ Sports recently. “It came out of nowhere last night. A lot of people were speculating that it was posturing because of negotiations but we really haven’t been negotiating that hard. He said that in Chicago, I saw that and he sent me a text, but we’ve really never had a bad conversation with Conor McGregor since he’s been in the UFC.

“He went back and he said I feel like I should own a piece of the company,” White said. “And I said, ‘Conor, you know that’s never gonna happen. But this was a couple weeks ago. And then last night when he did that - listen, I don’t know why everybody’s so shocked about it. When you think about it, ever since the Floyd Mayweather fight, you don’t know if this guy’s ever gonna fight again. He’s fought twice since he won in 2016.”

McGregor recently told fans in Chicago that he was seeking “his rightful shares” in the UFC, something he’s been after since becoming the organizations first “champ champ” after knocking out Eddie Alvarez. It’s something the UFC has been staunchly against. Though the organization did yield some for The Money Fight against Floyd Mayweather, co-promoting the venture with Showtime Boxing, Mayweather Promotions, and McGregor’s own McGregor Sports and Entertainment, they have drawn a hard line against giving up equity. That doesn’t seem likely to change anytime soon, with White saying the only way he’d give up any is if McGregor paid for it.

“I’m sure that’s the case,” White said. “But Conor has never come out, sat down with me and said, ‘I want a piece of the company, here’s why.’ We’ve never had that conversation. We did it in text a couple weeks ago. Like I said, I’ve never had a bad conversation with Conor McGregor in the entire time he’s been in this company. You know I love the guy. He’s got plenty of money, if he wants to retire, that’s his decision. I always say, when you talk about retirement, it’s probably something you should do if that’s what you’re thinking.

“If you want to own a piece of the company, you’d have to put up the money to buy a piece of the company. That’s how it works. These are all parts of negotiation. If you wanted to buy into the UFC right now, the valuation is pretty huge.”

White also admitted that if McGregor wanted to do some horse trading and negotiate part of his pay as equity options, he would be willing to entertain the idea. But right now might not be the best time for that. Just yesterday, the New York Times reported that McGregor is under investigation for a sexual assault allegation in Ireland. On top of that, the UFC just recently signed an exclusive PPV deal with ESPN, meaning that the UFC has never needed McGregor less. Besides, White says, the UFC is a brand unto itself and doesn’t need McGregor to keep moving forward.

“I’ve been hearing that for 20 years,” White concluded. “I’ve been hearing that when every star is coming to the end of their career. People have been saying that to me for 20 years. When we sold the company, ‘Ari paid too much and the UFC is dead now! They’re not gonna get a television deal!’ I hear this stuff everyday.

“First of all, nobody knows what we’re working on. Nobody knows anything about this sport. Nobody! Not even the so-called experts because all this stuff is new. The things that we’re doing - we’ve been the trailblazers in this business for the last 20 years and we’re gonna be for the next 20 years too. The stuff that we’re working on is so huge and so next level and it’s amazing when we have stars like Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva and Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey. But it’s part of sports. There will be others.”

It looks like he's trying to force their hand like he did back in 2016, but reading what Dana's saying I don't think there's a chance of him getting what he wants. Unless he's willing to pay for it of course, but for all the money he has he isn't operating at that level. He'd be looking at a small percentage at best.

Edited by David
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