In 640 words, Conor McGregor wrote himself into the history books of mixed martial arts.
Love him or hate him, the marketing nous and manipulative mastery of ‘The Notorious’ reached a new level with his Facebook statement on Thursday.
It was checkmate in a one-sided game of chess that began with that tweet on Tuesday evening in which McGregor claimed to have retired.
I have decided to retire young.
Thanks for the cheese.
Catch ya's later.— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 19, 2016
The UFC countered by announcing they had pulled their biggest draw from the most anticipated UFC card in seven years – the one that was destined to smash the pay-per-view record set by UFC 100.
It was a bold, if naive and overeager, move from the promotion, who must have known that a card without McGregor was a card destined to underachieve.
A very, very visibly angry Dana White insisted he wasn’t upset by McGregor’s refusal to show face at Friday afternoon’s press conference in Las Vegas.
“I swear to God I’m not even mad a little bit,” White said lied on The Herd.
If White was telling the truth about not being angry, which he almost certainly wasn’t, then he should realise that perhaps he should be. He should be fucking furious. With himself, if not with anyone else.
Because of an unwillingness to compromise, White has ensured that his company are set to miss out on millions of dollars this summer.
McGregor didn’t do that. White and his business associates did that.
Clutching at straws of justification to rationalise the decision to jeopardise arguably his biggest show to date, White came across as a promoter desperate to appear powerful when, in fact, he looked anything but.
White repeatedly referenced Nick Diaz and the series of events that led up to UFC 137, i.e. when Diaz lost his shot at the welterweight title in 2011 for refusing to show up for promotional events.
There is a significant difference between Nick Diaz in 2011 and Conor McGregor in 2016 that isn’t mentioned by White.
Diaz has a career-long reputation for being difficult when it comes to media obligations while McGregor has been a willing, if not always punctual, soldier for the promotion when it comes to the fight-hyping battle.
Ahead of UFC 189, while cutting weight and coming to terms with the news that he would no longer be fighting Jose Aldo, McGregor flew from Las Vegas to Connecticut to New York and back to Las Vegas in the space of a few days to pump up the main event of last summer’s monster card.
On the world tour with Aldo and, subsequently, in all press conferences with Rafael dos Anjos, it was McGregor who did 95% of the heavy lifting.
People were tuning in to see the McGregor show because it was the Irishman who sold the events.
By pulling McGregor from UFC 200, the promotion probably expected fans to have responded with a resounding “fair play to them for standing up to this power-hungry Irishman.”
What’s happened instead is that fans are demanding they row back on their quick fire decision.
And why?
All because of carefully-worded, candid and forthright Facebook status.
McGregor forced the ball deep into the UFC’s court, and snookered them (excuse the overlapping sporting analogies) with his post-retirement unretirement.
“I am just trying to do my job and fight here,” McGregor wrote.
Many expected a show of defiance from McGregor with a giant ‘Fuck You’ to the UFC.
But the 27-year-old came across as something that he is not often described as. McGregor was reasonable.
He articulately and expertly explained how he had made a mistake in acquiescing to over-promotion in the run-up to UFC 196 and believes that media fatigue may well have played its part in his defeat to Nate Diaz.
“I am facing a taller, longer and heavier man. I need to prepare correctly this time.
“I can not dance for you this time.”
McGregor made fantastic points with his explanation for the ‘retirement’ tweet because, if publicity was what the UFC wanted by bringing the Dubliner to Las Vegas to spout more of his patented sound bites, they received more than triple that with the social media explosion following that solitary tweet.
McGregor proved that he doesn’t have to be sat in front of a microphone to promote. He can promote through the Twitter app on his phone before he wraps his hands for another tough training session in Reykjavik.
And it’s not like he outright refused to do any press. McGregor made it clear that he would attend the media event in New York but that his training had to come first, ahead of the press conferences in Vegas and Stockton.
If the UFC’s gripe with McGregor is that he refused to promote then that accusation doesn’t really hold up, seeing as he guaranteed more publicity with a 13-word tweet than he did with his 13-second knockout of Jose Aldo last December or any number of his now legendary press conference appearances.
Critics may not agree with it but McGregor is a special case and he should be treated as such. He has bent over backwards for the UFC more often than any fighter in history and, in truth, is deserving of a little bit of leeway.
And with his well thought-out statement, he placed himself in a win/win position and cornered his employer into a lose/lose situation in which they’re not accustomed to being.
Fighting at UFC 200 won’t make or break Conor McGregor. He’s in the fortunate position where he’s got enough money in the bank that he doesn’t need to fight this summer but made it clear that he is still preparing for UFC 200. Whenever he fights again, be it UFC 200 or UFC 205 in New York, he’s ensured that more eyes than ever will be on him.
Having him fight at UFC 200 won’t make or break the UFC either but his absence will definitely hit them hard. Without McGregor on the card, the July 9th event simply won’t do the numbers that the promotion feel acceptable for such a landmark event. So holding firm to their word won’t benefit them financially.
And if they do cave and give McGregor his way, then they will have yielded to a fighter in a way that will make it difficult for anyone to take them seriously.
Dana White has tied his own hands with mesh wiring and only he can gnaw his way out of them.
Because now, even the fighters who turned on McGregor on Tuesday have come around to the Irishman’s handling of the situation.
Fighters are fighters first and foremost, and training-over-promotion is an attitude that all competitors can relate to.
McGregor could have turned the heat up even higher by appealing to his fellow fighters to unite against over-promotion but, again, he was intelligent enough not to burn his bridge with his employer by turning other fighters against them.
He played it just right, with precision more so than power as is his tendency, and now he looks to be flying the flag for fighting to take precedence over fanfare.
Meanwhile the UFC will look extremely petty if they remain committed to keeping McGregor off of their biggest card of the year. Cutting one’s nose off to spite their face comes to mind.
And whilst the noseless UFC brass proudly boast about putting an overzealous fighter back in his box, McGregor’s nostrils are filled with clean Icelandic air and the smugness that comes from knowing you’ve outmanoeuvred an opponent.
It’s all just another day in the impossible-to-ignore life of Conor McGregor.
