Official Conor McGregor thread (part 2). **Read warning in 1st post**

JustShon

glasso wrote: »

but McGregor had no problem doing any promo before.

more likely the real reason is that the UFC were not going to offer him the same sort of money deal as he was getting recently (due to the loss which despite what people may argue DOES reduce marketability, not needing McGregor's publicity as much as it's been there done that)

I'd certainly buy that more than him refusing his media obligations as a roundabout way of running away from Diaz.

Personally I think it's just McGregor underestimating his ability to make demands but we're both just speculating at this point.

Depp

paulieeye wrote: »

Wouldnt he have to gain about 20kg of muscle, those WWE fans like their boys thick, solid and tight

McGregor and Finn Balor for the tag team championship

FutureGuy

paulieeye wrote: »

Wouldnt he have to gain about 20kg of muscle, those WWE fans like their boys thick, solid and tight

Not really. There are plenty of wrestlers who do not have a fraction of the physique that McGregor currently has. It'd be a pretty easy transition for him.

martyos121

Can we just get one thing straight about the "McGregor to WWE" theory please?

He did not follow any wrestlers on Twitter last night or even the day before, he followed them the night of WrestleMania 32 on April 3rd presumably to troll the crap out of wrestling fans into thinking he'd show up there, many of whom fell for it.

If anyone's using that as a base for your theory, you should stop.

newbbieb

martyos121 wrote: »

Can we just get one thing straight about the "McGregor to WWE" theory please?

He did not follow any wrestlers last night or even the day before, he followed them the night of WrestleMania 32 on April 3rd presumably to troll the crap out of wrestling fans, many of whom fell for it.

Well thats me corrected i don't follow any of this twittersphere i just read on some mma site last night that he followed 3 wrestlers last night,i stand corrected.

irishguy1983

FutureGuy wrote: »

I wont pretend to know anything about UFC contracts or how to exit them. I also do think this could bea power play to get more money for his fights.

Monokne, I think you make some excellent points relating to the new WWE and their new subscription model. However, you are basing that on $10 and then everyone abandoning their subscription. Furthermore, there is still a significant percentage of customers who prefer and use the traditional PPV price of $XX per show.

Then you have merchandising - he is the UFC's biggest star and every WWE fan knows who he is. He would make the company a fortune in merchandising - remember WWE own Tapout clothing now.

Finally, WWE badly need name power. Probably more than they ever have. Comor McGregor, even with limited appearances would give them that. It would be all over the news and a massive win for Vince McMahon.

To me, that is $30m incredibly well spent.

UFC fans, please correct me if I am wrong here, but Conor is a businessman. He has always stated he is in this game for the money and when he has enough, he is gone. Simple as that.

He has just witnessed a fighter die. That must be on his mind at 27 years of age. He can continue to fight or he can do something else.

Let's paint the picture. Vince McMahon calls him and says we will give you $30m for 14 dates throughout the year and a fight at Wrestlemania next year. He can chill, keep in shape, live it up care free and learn the ropes in WWE. It doesn't have to be a technical fight like a traditional WWE fight - Mayweather did something similar ar WM24.

Compare that to what he earns in UFC and the amount of time dedicated to training etc.

As a business man, I would fully expect an offer like that to be analysed at the very least.

He is a global megastar. UFC made him but I do not feel he needs to let it define him.

I would not be at all surprised if he ended up in WWE - be has the complete package for that business.

Not sure about the WWE thing but I do think the loss to Diaz and the 27 year old dying has affected him profoundly.

I think he felt he could walk on water before the Diaz fight.

There is no way he is retiring due to media duties - far more to it.

martyos121

newbbieb wrote: »

Well thats me corrected i don't follow any of this twittersphere i just read on some mma site last night that he followed 3 wrestlers last night,i stand corrected.

Fair enough, there's a lot of sites out there at the moment who all want a slice of the McGregor pie, and they'll do whatever it takes to get the clicks.

I must say too, as a pro-wrestling fan, I'm shocked that pretty much every single wrestling site is covering the McGregor story. I know there's a decent overlap of fans between the two, but he's a huge deal in the sporting (and sports-entertaining) world.

riffmongous

FutureGuy wrote: »

Not really. There are plenty of wrestlers who do not have a fraction of the physique that McGregor currently has. It'd be a pretty easy transition for him.

Sure a few steaks are all he would need :pac:

paulieeye

martyos121 wrote: »

Can we just get one thing straight about the "McGregor to WWE" theory please?

He did not follow any wrestlers on Twitter last night or even the day before, he followed them the night of WrestleMania 32 on April 3rd presumably to troll the crap out of wrestling fans into thinking he'd show up there, many of whom fell for it.

If anyone's using that as a base for your theory, you should stop.

I dont think its beyond the realms of possibility, he has the personality and likes money. Seems like a good fit. Hopefully not tho..to end on a loss would be a sad way to go

eddie73

He is not scared of Diaz per say. This is more likely to be about money than anything else.

You would have to say that the defeat to Diaz, and the manner of it, opened his eyes to the ufc, the top quality opposition that is there and the fact that it would be most likely that he would have to fight about 3 fighters in the next 2 years that could potentially dismantle him. Dos Anjos, Robbie Lawlor and most dangerous of all, Khabib Nurmagomedov. Apparently this guy wanted to stand in for dos Anjos 2 months ago, but was turned down.

When you talk the talk that Conor McGregor talked, and you are beaten, there is no way of backing it up continually. He would have to sit at press conferences quietly, or continue trash talking the opposition but without the invincibility to back it up. Either way, he would be a sitting duck for ridicule.

The question now is what is his legacy? He cant retire undefeated. His last fight he tapped out. I would strongly suggest that he is going to be back. But it is not going to be an easy road.

zuutroy

I'm the FW Champ and essentially made it to the top of the game.
I got beat at a higher weight and don't feel invincible anymore.
A guy died from the injuries he received right in front of me.
I can earn the same or more money from pretending to hit people for a while.

Hmm.

martyos121

paulieeye wrote: »

I dont think its beyond the realms of possibility, he has the personality and likes money. Seems like a good fit. Hopefully not tho..to end on a loss would be a sad way to go

I didn't say it's not gonna happen, I'm just saying that this one fact that I've seen a few people reporting is wide of the mark and it has absolutely no bearing on the current situation.

newbbieb

irishguy1983 wrote: »

Not sure about the WWE thing but I do think the loss to Diaz and the 27 year old dying has affected him profoundly.

I think he felt he could walk on water before the Diaz fight.

There is no way he is retiring due to media duties - far more to it.

Most likely he figured it might be disrespectful,with the death in Dublin and with comments from the likes of Joe Brolly its totally understandable from Conors point of view to not want to do it right now.

He probably wanted/expected the UFC to cut him some slack with the recent events in Dublin,and Dana wasn't in the mood for it with money been spent on the promotion.

lougal88

On the contract issue - Randy still being under contract for 2 more fights etc.

Does anybody know how many more fights Conor is actually under contract for?

Pac1Man

JustShon wrote: »

It's more likely to have been along the lines of:

Dana: We need you to do your bit in the marketing
Conor: Don't wanna, training in Iceland.
Dana: You're obliged to do this, we'll pull you from the fight if you don't.
Conor: You wouldn't dare, I'm your big star.
Dana: You're off the card.

I kinda hope that's exactly how the telephone call went.

JustShon

paulieeye wrote: »

I dont think its beyond the realms of possibility, he has the personality and likes money. Seems like a good fit. Hopefully not tho..to end on a loss would be a sad way to go

Yeah, given the way his career has been so far, he should go out with a bang. At the very least they should make a big deal of his last fight instead of the current situation which is "You remember Conor's last fight? Yeah well that was his last fight."

markcahill1985

Easy Rod wrote: »

I think he means you can't 'retire' and sign with another promotion or the WWE for that matter.

Was Brock out of conract with the UFC when he retired? (genuine question, not being a smartass). I have a feeling Conor will end up in the WWE in the future.

markcahill1985

newbbieb wrote: »

Brock didn't have one but given the fall out with the UFC and seemingly Conor following WWE wrestlers on twitter last night you get the feeling that he has some clause in his contract that allows him to possibly do WWE that would explain his actions in following them.

He followed them prior to Wrestlemania when it was rumoured he would be appearing.

JustShon

Pac1Man wrote: »

I kinda hope that's exactly how the telephone call went.

In my head it definitely has the tone of a mother trying to get a toddler to eat his vegetables or he doesn't get any desert.

EoineyM

Get Ido in as a replacement for UFC200. Him and the diaz brothers have unfinished business.

lougal88

EoineyM wrote: »

Get Ido in as a replacement for UFC200. Him and the diaz brothers have unfinished business.

Only thing Ido will be fighting for is the Touch-Butt Title.

JustShon

EoineyM wrote: »

Get Ido in as a replacement for UFC200. Him and the diaz brothers have unfinished business.

UFC 200! Forget touch butt in the park, now it's touch butt in the octagon!

newbbieb

lougal88 wrote: »

On the contract issue - Randy still being under contract for 2 more fights etc.

Does anybody know how many more fights Conor is actually under contract for?

I would love to know that myself i got a feeling there is a good few on it,he signed a 6 or 8 fight deal after the Brandao fight but then signed a renewed one just before the Aldo fight i think, my guess is he has at least 6.

SteM

newbbieb wrote: »

Most likely he figured it might be disrespectful,with the death in Dublin and with comments from the likes of Joe Brolly its totally understandable from Conors point of view to not want to do it right now.

He probably wanted/expected the UFC to cut him some slack with the recent events in Dublin,and Dana wasn't in the mood for it with money been spent on the promotion.

Ariel Helwani said that the UFC had planned some sort of elaborate photo shoot in Vegas on Friday that he said could have cost them a 7 figure sum to set up. If Conor's not there for that then it's wasted money.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1D5jJqKXNg

Must have been some photo shoot!

martyos121

EoineyM: Get Ido in as a replacement for UFC200. Him and the diaz brothers have unfinished business.

He'd probably have a cool nickname at least.

Ido "n't know what I'm doing" Portal

markcahill1985

Falthyron wrote: »

Ironically, McGregor retiring has probably delivered more attention and advertising to UFC200 than doing some promo video and photos that would probably only been seen in the U.S. Wait for the American 'twist' when McGregor 'surprises' us all with a last minute fight in July. :rolleyes:

Those crafty and devious Americans always pulling their fanciful tricks! :P

Thats the thing, Brendan Schaub tweeted last night that press conferences are so out dated etc, goes to show he is right when you see what a simple tweet from Conor did. Interesting also, I read that Kobe Bryant retirement poem got 130k retweets when he tweetd it, at last glance this morning Conors had 139k retweets, goes to show the reach the guy has. Will be a massive dent to Dana and Lorenzos pockets if he doesnt fight again.

Cathy.C

Wouldn't be surprised if they drag out announcing who will fight Diaz and then Nate starts trash talking a little saying he is making fighters retire out of fear and all of suggen Conor starts tweeting about how he'd be more than happy to come out of retirement on July 9th if nobody wants to face Nate and bish bash bosh.. it'll be back on. I don't know but something tells me we haven't seen the last twist in this tale yet.

Sure, UFC 200 is getting a lot of publicity for this but only because of Conor's attachment. The pressure will now be on them to get Conor to Vegas. A lot of nonsense was talked about how nobody was interested in the rematch but I felt it was a little hollow. Surely the reaction to Conor not being there will be a big incentive for them to sort it out, in a way that they don't lose face at least.

Depp

Cathy.C wrote: »

Wouldn't be surprised if they drag out announcing who will fight Diaz and then Nate starts trash talking a little saying he is making fighters retire out of fear and all of suggen Conor starts tweeting about how he'd be more than happy to come out of retirement on July 9th if nobody wants to face Nate and bish bash bosh.. it'll be back on.

I don't know but something tells me we haven't seen the last twist in this whole thing. Sure, UFC 200 is getting a lot of publicity for this but only because of Conor's attachment. The pressure will now be on them to get Conor to Vegas. A lot of nonsense was talked about how nobody was interested in the rematch but I felt it was a little hollow.

best plan is to watch social media and see if they keep training heavy, that should tell us whats going on

EoineyM

I'd say GSP's phone is ringing off the hook since this announcement. Sets the scene nicely. Nate to avenge Nick's defeat etc etc

CurryFlavoured

EoineyM wrote: »

I'd say GSP's phone is ringing off the hook since this announcement. Sets the scene nicely. Nate to avenge Nick's defeat etc etc

Could have been the plan all along, don't think Dana would have dumped Conor if he didn't have a big money replacement. I personally never thought GSP would come back but now I do. I also don't think Conor wanted to fight, there's no way Dana booted him if Conor wanted to fight. Conor made the final call, as usual.