You have to hand it to Conor McGregor, the man’s ability to drum up hype out of nothing is second to none.
After realising that he had already captured the attention of most of the MMA community, the Notorious changed tact and began targeting fans of other sports in order to get more of those juicy, cash-emitting eyeballs on him.
Recently, we saw him go after the huge spectator-driven entertainment business of professional wrestling. A few of his classic nerve-striking zingers were enough to get pretty much the entire community talking about him. From the furious fans to the WWE’s biggest names, everyone wanted in on the McGregor-bashing.
No long after, UFC 202 pulled in the third highest PPV numbers in the promotion’s history.
Per UFC, UFC 202 was third biggest PPV in company history, behind UFC 196 and 100. In other words, McGregor + Diaz = Ca$h Money.
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) August 24, 2016
Another market McGregor has been tapping into is the world of boxing.
Remember those insane Floyd Mayweather superfight rumours? Nate Diaz pretty much nailed it with his theory on that weird period combat sports fans went through.
Well, McGregor may have his mind on his money, but ‘Money’ isn’t the only elite pugilist on his mind. We’ve already had Amir Khan trying to regain some sense of relevancy by calling out ‘the Notorious‘, and the last man to knock the Brit flat on his ass is also getting in on the act.
Canelo Alvarez proves too good for Amir Khan with stunning sixth-round KO https://t.co/uFg6I0A0Il
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) May 8, 2016
McGregor successfully got a rise out of Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez after implying the boxer was ducking knockout monster Gennady Golovkin in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
“When you look at this Canelo [Alvarez] situation. It’s an era of cherry picking.”
“It’s not like that with me. I’m here to challenge myself. I’m training to go up two divisions, and it’s going to be a great fight.”
And like so many fighters before him, Canelo let the comments get under his skin. Just like that, a potential rivalry between the pair became a thing.
Canelo got a bit fired up when told @TheNotoriousMMA referred to him as cherry picker. He chimed back Conor "gasses out after two rounds."
— Lance Pugmire (@pugboxing) August 24, 2016
Well, guess who’s still getting asked questions about a certain UFC superstar? The latest came courtesy of Fight Hub and Alvarez, who should be focusing on his upcoming against Liam Smith, actually treated the question seriously.
“If he wants to try out boxing, then any time he wants. If he wants to come over to this side of the world and try boxing, any time he wants, to see that it’s not as easy as he thinks.”
The fact of the matter is, if McGregor and Canelo slugged it out inside a boxing ring over 12 rounds, the Dubliner would probably be rendered unconscious. The same fate would almost definitely befall Alvarez if they faced each other inside the Octagon.
You’d put your house on Michael Phelps breezing through the 200m freestyle swim section of the modern pentathlon, but he’s fucked when it comes to fencing and show jumping.
It’s extremely unlikely that McGregor will ever fight Alvarez, yet the these superfight questions keep getting answers.
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