UFC fighter Conor McGregor is "establishing himself as the face of combat sports" after recording the fastest title fight knockout in league history in front of a "raucous crowd" Saturday night in Las Vegas, according to Kevin Iole of YAHOO SPORTS. The crowd of 16,516 -- the "largest to witness an MMA event in Nevada" -- "paid a U.S. MMA record" of $10.1M for McGregor's bout against Jose Aldo. UFC 193 last month in Australia featuring Holly Holm-Ronda Rousey "drew a UFC-record 56,214 fans and sold in excess of 1 million pay-per-views." UFC co-Chair & CEO Lorenzo Fertitta at the time said that it "would be the second-biggest pay-per-view card in company history." Iole noted, however, just 29 days later, indications are that UFC 194’s final sales figures "will blow it away." Combat sports "rely upon stars, and in McGregor, the UFC now has the biggest star in the fight game." It is clear that McGregor "is just getting started." He has a "great sense for business, and knows that chasing a title at lightweight and becoming the first UFC fighter to simultaneously hold titles in two divisions would result in another massive payday" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 12/13). ESPN’s Jonathan Coachman following Saturday's fight told McGregor he is “now the star of stars” and “clearly the biggest star as far as money is concerned, as far as brashness is concerned." Coachman: "Are you ready to now embrace that you’re the champion, your space, your spot as the champion?" McGregor replied, “Did I give off that I wasn’t embracing that? ... I carried myself as a world champion” (“SportsCenter,” ESPN, 12/13).
A STAR IS BORN: SI.com's Jeff Wagenheim wrote under the header, "Conor McGregor Emerges As UFC's Biggest Star In Win Over Jose Aldo." McGregor "already was a star, but this victory catapults him to an MMA stratosphere that he alone populates." Rousey "is still the biggest mainstream celebrity the sport has produced, but within the fight game and with its core audience, neither she nor anyone else can match McGregor." He "is well aware of that, by the way, so expect him to cash in on it" (SI.com, 12/13). FS1’s Michael Bisping said, “People say the UFC is bigger than boxing these days, and if it is, that means Conor McGregor is a bigger star than Floyd Mayweather. He is the biggest combat star on planet Earth” (“UFC Post Fight Show,” FS1, 12/13). USA TODAY's Martin Rogers writes McGregor "maintained the momentum that has rapidly transformed him into MMA’s biggest draw" by dispatching Aldo. Whether he remains at 145 pounds or "moves up to the lightweight division and seeks to hold both belts at once, the money, and the people, will follow." McGregor’s ability to "pull 10s of thousands into Sin City each time he headlines a card is another reason why he has risen to become the company’s golden child and chief cash cow" (USA TODAY, 12/14).
POLARIZING PUNCH: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Jason Gay writes McGregor in the space of a couple years in UFC "had become perhaps the sport’s most polarizing personality." He is a "charismatic champion with the rare ability to cross over to the mainstream." That is a "welcome development" for UFC in the wake of Rousey’s "stunning loss last month." McGregor’s victory also "underlined an impolite truth about sports," which is that it "can be fun to see a big mouth win." It is "hard to deny the pleasure of watching somebody who yaps and yaps and yaps and then goes right out there and delivers on the yap" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 12/14). In Las Vegas, Case Keefer wrote McGregor "is different because of the way he’s catalyzed interest since signing to the promotion three years ago." He has "continually made proclamations that sound farfetched until he proceeds to accomplish all of them." McGregor is "mostly linked to either UFC 198, which will be held at Madison Square Garden on April 23 pending New York legalizing mixed martial arts, or UFC 200, staged at the new Las Vegas Arena on July 9" (LAS VEGAS SUN, 12/13).
IT'S A WOMAN'S WORLD: ESPNW's Mike Huang wrote Rousey and Holm "are now the pied pipers of women's MMA." If the sport "had momentum before UFC 193, it strapped on a jet pack after Holm and Rousey got done." UFC President Dana White said, "This event changed everything. Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm broke all our records. This thing was off the charts." He added, "Women in the main event and co-main event. No fight card has ever done that in the history of combat sports. So, to me it was a great decision" (ESPNW.com, 12/11).
