On February 7, 2013, the UFC signed what will be their biggest superstar the “Notorious” Conor McGregor. McGregor’s rise to being a superstar was something to behold. Before coming to the UFC, he was a two-division champion for Cage Warriors winning the Featherweight Championship and Lightweight Championship. With an 8 fight win streak, McGregor had a ton of buzz and moved back down to Featherweight to start his UFC career. His UFC debut knockout win over Marcus Brimage on April 6, 2013, at UFC on Fuel 9, let fans know that he was special. Now almost 7 years later, McGregor is facing the crossroads of his MMA career.
McGregor win over Brimage was the start of what would be a 4 fight win streak in the UFC. Those wins would be against the likes of Max Halloway, Diego Brandao, Dustin Poirier, and Dennis Siver. In two years, McGregor had become a star and would defeat UFC veteran Chad Mendes via knockout for the Interim Featherweight Championship at UFC 189 on July 11, 2015. The original main event was supposed to be McGregor vs Aldo for the Featherweight Championship, but Aldo suffered a rib injury and had to pull out. Even with the late replacement in Mendes, the Pay-Per-View had a buy rate of $825,000. Five months later on December 12, 2015, at UFC 194, McGregor defeated Jose Aldo for the Undisputed Featherweight Championship by knockout in 13 seconds. The Pay-Per-View did a $1.2 million buy rate and is among the top ten all-time UFC Pay-Per-View buys. The heated rivalry, the promotional work by the UFC and McGregor’s performance, catapulted McGregor into becoming the biggest Superstar in the UFC.
On top of the world at that time, McGregor would attempt to move up to Lightweight to become a two-division champion against champion Rafael Dos Anos at UFC 196 on March 5, 2016. However, RDA had broken his foot and Nate Diaz would step in on short notice to fight McGregor at Welterweight. This was a key moment in McGregor’s career, as he would suffer his first loss in the UFC by Rear Naked Choke and the first time people questioned his desire to win. McGregor vs Diaz did a buy rate of $1,317,000, once again showing the star power of McGregor and creating a new star in Diaz. McGregor wanted a rematch at Welterweight against Diaz and would win by Majority Decision at UFC 202 on August 20, 2016. The second fight between the two drew a 1.6 million Pay-Per-View buy rate and at that time the biggest buy rate in UFC’s history.
In the lead up to the fight, McGregor and Diaz got into a water bottle-throwing incident at a press conference for the fight in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was the first time McGregor would find himself in trouble outside of fighting, resulting in 150k fine and community service handed down by the Nevada Athletic Commission. McGregor’s performance in the rematch silenced some of his doubters and at the same time, his rivalry with Diaz made McGregor an even bigger Superstar. Almost 3 months later, McGregor would achieve his goal he set that year by defeating via knockout Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 on November 12, 2016, for the UFC Lightweight Championship. McGregor would also become the first fighter to hold two championships in two divisions simultaneously(Featherweight and Lightweight.) UFC 205 did a $1.3 Pay-Per-View buy rate and a gate of $17.7 at Madison Square Garden, the biggest gate in UFC history at that time. It also broke the gate record of MSG, previously held by Holyfield vs Lewis 13.5 million gate.
McGregor’s popularity and achievements helped create a once in a lifetime opportunity with the biggest payday of his career. McGregor would catch the attention of Boxing legend Floyd “Money” Mayweather and would lead to McGregor’s first boxing match against Mayweather on August 26, 2017. Mayweather vs McGregor would become the 2nd highest buy rate in boxing history, after Showtime announced it did a 4.3 million buy rate. Mayweather would beat McGregor by knockout in the 10th round, marking Mayweather’s 50th win in boxing. McGregor hinted that he may have earned close to 100 million dollars for the fight. Although McGregor lost, he maintained his Superstar status without fighting in the UFC that year.
While McGregor achieved success outside of the UFC in 2017, the Lightweight and Featherweight division was in limbo with his absences. McGregor’s inactivity resulted in the UFC stripping him of both his belts, most notably the Lightweight Championship. In his absence, Khabib Nurmagomedov made a claim that he should be challenging for the Lightweight Championship due to the accomplishments he had done in the UFC during that time.
The UFC stripped McGregor the day of Nurmagomedov vs Al Iaquinta at UFC 242 on April 7, 2018, in Brooklyn, NY. However, on April 5th, McGregor would make his presence known in the wrong way and find himself in trouble once again. Nurmagomedov would get into an altercation with McGregor’s long-time training partner Artem Lobov during fight week and McGregor took it upon himself to travel from Ireland to Brooklyn in response. McGregor and a group of people he brought with him, invaded the Barclay Center as fighters that were there for media day began to leave by bus. McGregor would find the bus Khabib Nurmagomedov was on and throw a dolly at the bus, shattering the window and causing injury to several fighters. Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg who were scheduled to fight on the card had to pull out of their fights due to injury for the glass shattering. McGregor was taken into custody by the NYPD and released on $50,000 bail, he would plead guilty to disorderly conduct and avoided going to jail.
McGregor and Nurmagomedov heated rivalry/issue would culminate at UFC 229 on October 6, 2018, for the Lightweight Championship and McGregor return to fight in the UFC. UFC 229 would become the biggest UFC Pay-Per-View of all time, with a buy rate of 2.4 million and a gate of $17,188,894.67. It also further solidified McGregor as the UFC’s biggest star, with his name being featured four out of five times among the UFC’s highest Pay Per View buy rates all-time(UFC 229, UFC 202, UFC 196, UFC 205). McGregor would get dominated and eventually submitted via neck crank in the 4th round by Nurmagomedov. In the aftermath, Nurmagomedov would jump out of the cage to attack McGregor’s teammate Dillion Danis and the rest is history. McGregor and Nurmagomedov would be fined and suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission for their involvement in the brawl.
With all the trash-talking and build to the fight, McGregor losing to Nurmagomedov in the dominant fashion set McGregor back. The loss was so significant that it made it difficult to justify an immediate rematch and Mcgregor’s UFC career was in question.
McGregor in 2019 would find himself in both legal trouble and scandals. In March, McGregor smashed a “Fan’s” phone outside Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, Florida. McGregor was charged with strong-armed robbery and misdemeanor Criminal mischief, but the case was dropped after the “Fan” stopped cooperating. That same month on the 26, the New York Times reported that Conor McGregor was under investigation for sexual assault in Dublin, Ireland. This came after McGregor tweeted that he was retiring from MMA that same day. Regarding this New York Times reported that McGregor’s publicist Karen J. Kessler said, “This story has been circulating for some time, and it is unclear why it is being reported now,” the statement said in part. “The assumption that the Conor retirement announcement today is related to this rumor is absolutely false.”
The New York Times has also reported on October 19, 2019, that McGregor is under investigation for a second sexual assault case in Dublin, Ireland. The New York Times did report that they got a statement from McGregor’s publicist who said “Conor McGregor is frequently the subject of rumors,” a publicist for the fighter said in an emailed statement. “He emphatically denies any report accusing him of sexual assault.” As of today, no official charges have been made against McGregor.
McGregor had also punched a man in a bar in Dublin, Ireland on April 6, 2019, . McGregor pleaded guilty and was fined $1,115.16.
2019 saw the majority of Mcgregor in the headlines for the wrong reasons. In his absence, new stars have begun to emerge in the UFC and Nurmagomedov is the best pound for pound Lightweight in the UFC. On January 18, 2020, McGregor has the opportunity to prove that he still is the biggest superstar in the UFC and that his MMA career is far from over. McGregor faces Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, who is coming off a 2-2 record in 2019 and looks to bounce back from a knockout loss to Justin Gaethje. McGregor is aiming for several big fights in 2020, one of them being a potential Lightweight championship rematch with Nurmagomedov. The year 2020 can possibly be the redemption of McGregor or potentially the beginning of the end of his MMA career.