McGregor vs Cerrone: Are The UFC Being Complacent?

McGregor vs Cerrone: Are The UFC Being Complacent?

By Jack Rainbow

McGregor’s return: Are the UFC being complacent?

ESPN has finally got what they were waiting for. The return of the sports undisputed biggest draw, the ‘Notorious’ Conor McGregor, who makes his anticipated return in two weeks time on the 18th of January in Las Vegas, headlining the first PPV of the decade in UFC 246.

In regards to Pay Per View numbers, there will be an anticipation of well north of one million buys, and obviously ‘Cowboy’ with his huge experience of fighting the best contenders the lightweight and welterweight division does qualify as a credible opponent.

However, one question I believe has not been looked at nearly enough is how much will the McGregor star have dwindled?

There is an undoubted air of complacency from both the UFC and McGregor in regard to the promotion of UFC 246. Incredibly for the first time, I can remember with an event of this magnitude, there has been no face to face between Cerrone and McGregor.

There have been no press conference, no back and forth on social media and very little media obligations. Rather than get footage of McGregor training or get him to bother having a stare-off with Cerrone the UFC has copied and pasted old clips and photos of McGregor from previous fights years ago.

Since the official announcement, the only press McGregor has done is one eight-minute interview on his own Youtube channel The Mac Life.

There is an obvious argument that McGregor sells himself but does he? He has not won a fight in three years and has not even fought since October 2018.

Rather than being sold as a must-watch event, McGregor vs Cerrone seems to be being sold as a warm-up fight for McGregor, with The MacLife interview predominantly focused on what comes next after the assumed McGregor victory.

This will not be interesting for the more casual fan and efforts of building Cerrone as a legitimate threat to McGregor have been at best lazy.

When factoring in obvious controversies such as stomping on a man’s phone in Miami and punching an elderly man at a bar, heavily upsetting many of even the most ardent McGregor fan, it does question how big will this event end up being, especially if comparing it to the spectacular events McGregor has headlined in the past.

One of the things that brought fans and casuals alike to watch a McGregor event was his witty trash talk, and for the first time I can remember in his UFC career, McGregor has been very respectful to Cerrone, even going as far as to wish him a Merry Christmas on Instagram!

This event lacks the ‘McGregor’ appeal, which is sold through his hilarious trash talk, and infectious confidence, a man who convinces you that he is invincible and his opponent is not on his level.

Even for the Khabib fight, although the build-up was minimal compared to an insane amount of press at previous events such as Aldo vs McGregor there were stare offs and classic McGregor one-liners at press conferences, and the hard core MMA fans and the casuals were sucked into it.

I fear that may not be the case for UFC 246. The promotion has been minimal and when adding a frankly fight night quality undercard bar a cracking fight between Yusuff and Fili, a stench of complacency lingers around this event.

The UFC who are so used to counting on McGregor to deliver unbelievable PPV numbers and even though his return will bring in better numbers than recent UFC PPVs. It just won’t be as high as it could or should have been.

It is nice to see McGregor returning, and it is, without doubt, fantastic news for the UFC and the sport, however, if they are not careful, complacency from both parties in expecting fans to tune in just because it is a McGregor event, will hinder the PPV profits, and if a sign of things to come in regards with McGregor version two, then it could lead to less casual viewership, limiting the growth of UFC overall.