Conor McGregor STUNS Interviewer – Breaking MMA News
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By Barnaby “Mattress Man” Kellaway
When Ariel Helwani sat down with Conor McGregor for an interview, the Irishman of course touched on all of his favourite things: his girlfriend, Ireland and money. When talking about his girlfriend of eight years and his homeland he chatted on about love, devotion and loyalty, we have heard it all before. But it was on the topic of money and business that we were given a window in to the highly ambitious, enterprising mind of ‘the notorious’ one – he has grand plans indeed.
His latest vision transcends the sport and delves in to the realms of business: “we will continue to grow until eventually it will be in association with, it will be me in association with Zuffa, that’s where I feel I am going.” With UFC 189 in mind he went on to explain how he is changing the game, “you will see on this show, it’s not gonna be like any show you’ve ever seen before in the history of the sport.”
As he refused to explain in any detail what he means by all of this we will have to wait and see. It is hard to imagine how an event could change specifically for the purposes of one man. But if they were then McGregor probably would be the man.
It is obvious that he has an excellent relationship with Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta, the two big bosses. He admires them as much as they appreciate him, “thankfully with the backing of Dana and Lorenzo, phenomenal business men, entrepreneurs, highly successful men with a vision that can guide my vision, it’s been a perfect relationship so far.” He goes on to explain how he foresees their alliance from here, “I see Dana and Lorenzo as business partners. As it grows and grows eventually we will become legit partners.”
As unlikely as this sounds, the Irishman is famous for his prophecies, one of his most replayed soundbites being: “I say when I’m gonna do, and then I do it”. He said he would beat his last two opponents in the first round and he did so with ease. He said he would get a title shot, his bout with current champion, Jose Aldo, is five weeks away. He has been saying for a while that he will become champion, becoming pound for pound king in the process. Now he says he will become business partners with Zuffa.
This is a highly optimistic vision but McGregor has proved to be of sound business mind, he is obsessed with the numbers: “I will definitely be counting every single number that is generated on this card. This is a game of analytics, if you wanna go forward and make your claim for the big pay days you’ve got to back it up. So for me every little number that I have gathered, the gate, the pay per view, the audience numbers, all the analytics, put it all together, lay it on the table and say this is what I have bought you and then we discuss negotiations, that’s how business is done.”
Clearly McGregor sees himself as a lot more than just an athlete and perhaps the UFC do too. His fighting ability/style combined with his charisma and business acumen make him, along with Ronda Rousey, the most marketable fighter on the roster. For the company to allow him to go from an employee to a partner would be unprecedented, but then again, there has never been someone quite like Conor McGregor.
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