Conor McGregror PISSED: UFC FANS Stunned – Breaking MMA News
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By Barnaby “Mattress Man” Kellaway
The UFC have announced the main event for UFC Dublin and it does not feature Conor McGregor. Instead, the last man to beat “The Notorious”, Joseph Duffy, will stand opposite one of McGregor’s victims of old, Dustin Poirier.
When it was announced on July 1st as a “UFC Fight Night” event the view was that unless they could change it at a later date to a pay-per-view show then there was no chance of Ireland’s greatest fighter competing. Now we know that it will be as originally announced and Conor McGregor will not be there.
This is a huge blow as Irish fans would understandably expect any UFC event in Dublin to have their golden boy at the top of the billing.
When speaking after the news broke the man himself expected to be the main attraction: “I built this here. I am the one that put the UFC on the map here. If you’re coming into my home town, you best believe I want to be on that show.”
McGregor hinted that reasoning for the decision is that his bosses now deem him too big to fight at Dublin’s 3Arena, which has a 9,500 capacity: “I spoke with Lorenzo two days ago about it and he was saying we want bigger stadiums.”
This thought means that the interim featherweight champion will only ever fight in his hometown if it is a stadium show at either Croke Park or the Aviva Stadium. With the most adoring fans in the sport there is no doubt McGregor could sell-out either of the 50,000+ seaters. However, with such unpredictable weather and neither stadium having a roof it would be a logistical nightmare for the UFC to make it happen.
The Dublin event last year was widely recognised as the best UFC show of the entire year, with all six of the Irish based fighters on the card winning.
Without the crescendo of a Conor McGregor win there is no way the event of 2015 can match last years. However, the host or Irish fighters being buoyed on by a raucous sea of green will still make for a great show.
Joseph Duffy, who beat McGregor via arm-triangle-choke after just 38 seconds in 2010, has only two fights in the UFC, both first round finishes. Although both were impressive victories it is highly unusual for a fighter to grace the main event slot after such a short amount of time. As well as his performances inside the cage it is his title of, “the last man to beat Conor McGregor”, that has thrust him in to the limelight so quickly.
As well as Duffy, Irish fans can expect to see a long line of proud Irish men and women on October 24th: Cathal Pendred, Neil Seery, Paddy Hoolahan, Aisling Daly and Norman Parke will all be campaigning for a place on the card.
Despite this stellar line-up, a UFC event in Dublin without Conor McGregor is just not right.
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