There’s just no pleasing some people.
In a sport that, perhaps to the UFC's chagrin, is entirely driven by stars, the biggest names matter the most. That’s not any particular brand of rocket science by any stretch of the imagination.
And in that sport where stars matter so much and the bigger the star the more he or she matters, Conor McGregor shines the brightest. He’s a world champion after violently dethroning the greatest featherweight to ever live last year, he’s a walking financial windfall for those lucky enough to land a fight with him, and he’s single-handedly taken on his employers on more than one occasion and come out smelling like a rose.
He’s even stirred the pot for a fight with Floyd Mayweather—the richest athlete on the planet and a man who doesn’t even compete in his sport.
On top of all of that, he’s also officially headlining UFC 205—the promotion’s first-ever event in New York City and one that’s rapidly becoming the biggest card of the year. At that event McGregor will meet Eddie Alvarez and look to become the first man to ever hold world titles in two UFC divisions simultaneously, a chance he had ripped away in March and replaced with a trash-talking, bottle-throwing, 1-1 odyssey at welterweight.
But get this: Not everyone is thrilled about that fact. Some are actually upset that the biggest draw in the sport today, and maybe ever, is going to get a lightweight title fight on a giant show. It seems that this camp of detractors has taken some offense to McGregor’s secondary title attempt out of some misplaced notion that his sport is one based on pure athletic merit.
If you're complaining about Conor/Eddie you're actually just an idiot. #UFC205
— Matthew Ryder (@matthewjryder) September 27, 2016
They whine and cry about his making Jose Aldo wait for a rematch at featherweight because it’s not fair that he’s holding up that division—this despite the fact that when Aldo held the belt, he’d routinely delay defenses due to injury and was sidelined for a year or more on multiple occasions.
McGregor last fought at 145 10 months ago, for the record.
They howl and moan about poor Khabib Nurmagomedov, everyone’s favorite grappling machine, who has come on strong in both the cage and his self-promotion over the past couple of years and certainly should have had the next crack at Alvarez—this despite the fact that Nurmagomedov has competed only three times in as many years, with his most recent win coming over a nobody in a fight that wasn’t even contested at lightweight.
McGregor has exactly as many fights at lightweight this year as Nurmagomedov does, for the record. In the past two years plus, in fact.
They bellyache and complain about the notion that being a draw shouldn’t be enough for an athlete to call his shots in this game, banging their proverbial fists on their proverbial tables and casting McGregor down for the advantages of stardom he’s created for himself—this despite the fact Brock Lesnar was paid for a performance-enhancing-drug-fuelled one-off at UFC 200 and CM Punk fought in the UFC without ever throwing an unscripted punch in his life only a few weeks ago.
McGregor’s stardom was built purely on salesmanship and performance in the cage, for the record.
So for all the merit truthers out there clacking keyboards as fast as they can to voice their outrage at this booking, spare the sport your thoughts.
Did the UFC get it wrong in booking McGregor vs. Alvarez for UFC 205?
Absolutely not. This is the way it is, and it’s the way it will always be, where the biggest names will run things and you’ll either like it or complain about it, and at the end of the day, you’ll go buy it anyway.
