Well, after the UFC 178 broadcast last night, perhaps no fighter did more to elevate his stock than Ireland’s Conor McGregor, who wiped out Dustin Poirier in the first round. McGregor was favored heading into the fight at the books, by nearly a 3 to 1 margin over Poirier, who was and is a relatively highly skilled prospect himself, so though his victory isn’t exactly a surprise, the way in which he did it surely means we will be getting heaping piles of Conor McGregor everywhere we turn.
His critics think he gets undeserved attention, but UFC President Dana White said it all when he stated the guy did a 1.4 million dollar gate. Ireland has a long tradition of boxers and fighters that goes back centuries, it is a definite part of the culture on the green isle, and McGregor has managed to capture the imagination of that crowd with a 21st century bombast that has created a huge buzz.
McGregor has embraced the role, and he did enough smack talking before the Poirier fight that he added a lot of people who wanted to see him fail to the list of those watching. What makes his performance all the more impressive is that for all the smack talking he did, he came out and di exactly what he said he was going to do.
What will be next for McGregor? The odds are he has written his own ticket to a title shot. Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes, the two top dogs in the division are scheduled to meet on October 25th. There appears to be little difference for MacGregor, as he could fight either man next. If Aldo dispatches Mendes again, McGregor makes sense as his next opponent. Aldo however has at times been a headache for the UFC, so if he drops the title, an immediate re-match is not necessarily assured him, though his resume calls for it. So Mendes versus McGregor is just as strong a possibility for Mendes as champion.
The fact is, the UFC should ride this wave. That title match could be in Ireland, aiming towards an April 2015 time frame, and it would turn into a cross over attraction that stops that entire country for the 25 minutes or less of the fight. McGregor has that going for him right now, and that type of appeal can be fleeting, so the UFC will go all in with mcGregor in 2015.
