The UFC have already stripped Conor McGregor of one belt and now they could look to rid him of a second strap.
UFC President Dana White confirmed on Wednesday that McGregor would be stripped of his Lightweight belt should Khabib Nurmagomedov and Max Holloway both make championship weight on Friday for their Lightweight title fight at UFC 223 on Saturday.
The UFC are now essentially doubling down on one of the core principles that turned a struggling company in 2001 into a multi-billion dollar business in 2018 – no one fighter is bigger than the brand.
509 days have passed since McGregor dropped Eddie Alvarez with a devastating four punch combination to claim the Lightweight title and the UFC have had just one pay-per-view (UFC 207) since that card that has garnered anything remotely close to what UFC 205 generated in pay-per-view buys, .
1.3 million people bought the pay-per-view for the McGregor-Alvarez fight. 667,000 people collectively purchased Holloway v Pettis at UFC 206, Holloway v Aldo at UFC 212, Ferguson v Lee at UFC 216 and Holloway v Aldo II at UFC 218.
Pay-per-view buys is not the sole barometer of success for a UFC event, but McGregor still spearheaded more buys in one fight than his nearest competitors achieved in headlining four separate cards.
The Dubliner holds four of the top five highest selling pay-per-views in the company’s history but it seems that the UFC are unwilling to budge in negotiations with their highest profile star, who is less than a year removed from the highest profile fight of his ever rising high profile career.
The UFC can strip Conor McGregor of his belts. They can pressure him into taking fights that he doesn’t necessarily have to take. And they can force him into a position where fans start to resent his prolonged absence from competition.
But can they afford to engage in a hold out with their biggest earner while his two closest financial competitors – Jon Jones and Ronda Rousey – are off playing paintball and flying through tables in the WWE?
White seems to think they can. The fight with Floyd Mayweather was a gigantic success for the UFC but pressure mounts on the promotion to deliver as new owners WME-IMG look to repay their debts from the $4.2 billion sale of the company in 2016.
“WME-IMG Endeavor bought us for $4 billion, and obviously they need to hit certain numbers for the banks,” White told ESPN earlier this year. “Right now, I’m spending another $1 million (at UFC’s Las Vegas headquarters) on another wing I want. That’s how bad of a year we’re having.
”(Endeavor CEO) Ari Emanuel wants to buy the building next door and build more s**t. We’re still growing.”
“I think the (2016) sale has everything to do with it,” White continued. “Everybody is looking at that $4 billion sale and asking, ‘Did they deliver?’
“F**k yeah, we delivered. We deliver every single year. And still, every year, if you listen to the media, we’re f**ked.”
The UFC might not be f**ked, at least not yet anyway, but McGregor is in a position where he holds all the cards, even if he has to sacrifice his belts in the process.
After receiving a reported €140 million for his fight with Mayweather last August, a figure he told Judge Miriam Walsh at Blanchardstown District Court last year, McGregor is under no pressure to fight but he’s battling a company that has a history of refusing to partner with fighters.
McGregor wants to fight, and given the couple of months he had after the Mayweather fight he could very well need to fight too, but what do belts really mean to him?
His reputation and legacy will be defined by the fights he’s had rather than the gold he carries.
The biggest fight of his MMA career came against Nate Diaz at Welterweight, a non-title fight, but a bout that saw him leave the arena on crutches and his star soar.
Everyone from Paul Pogba to Marc Gasol were mimicking his strut.
Marc Gasol wore it better. pic.twitter.com/FGQFF8IAjm
— Dylan Toback (@DylanTobackShhh) November 20, 2017
The five round war with Diaz at UFC 202 was a stern reminder of the brutal effects that an MMA fight can have on its combatants, but at this stage belts are just tools that the UFC can use to try and force McGregor away from the negotiating table and back towards the Octagon.
If the promotion can’t appeal to his financial demands, maybe they can appeal to his ego and his pride. Although, he seems to be largely unfazed thus far.
You’s’ll strip me of nothing you’s do nothing cunts.
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 5, 2018
Despite his extended absence from competition, McGregor still appears to be no closer to finalising a return to the Octagon.
The UFC Lightweight champion, while he can still lay claim to that title, is attempting to do what no fighter has done before him in gaining equity from a company that has a rooted tradition of paying their fighters well below their expected value.
The boardroom fight with the UFC will be a tougher challenge for McGregor than anything he’s experienced thus far in the Octagon, but as WME-IMG watch as the likes of Holloway, Aldo, Stipe Miocic, Tony Ferguson, Tyron Woodley and Robert Whittaker draw a fraction of what McGregor can earn for them across a multitude of revenue streams, how much longer do they wait before they concede to the Dubliner’s demands?
The UFC view themselves as a company that will be a combat sports staple for decades to come, and maybe they bite the bullet for a few years as they try and grow and enter new territories and break ground in new sports, but McGregor knows his value and there’s an argument to be made that he deserves a stake in a company where he’s by far and away the prized asset.
Belts separate one fighter from the rest of the pack in a particular division but the UFC need the rest of the pack to gain ground on the one fighter that will be separated from his belt sooner than he will be separated from his wallet.
