McGregor is still being called out by champions across multiple weight divisions and it’s been a long time since he stepped foot in the octagon.
His catch phases and gimmicks have been imitated by many in the industry and
It’s 2024 and the champions in the UFC is still gunning for a McGregor fight. It is arguably the only fight more sought after than a championship belt.
His catch phases and gimmicks are widely imitated by fighters in the industry today. He is the reason two-division titles are a major thing in the sport.
He is the reason that Francis fought Fury. He is the reason Anderson Silva boxed Jake Paul.
Did Avatar create an era of film making constantly being paid homage by other movies?
McGregor if anything is closer to the superhero franchise in movies, the entire franchise.
That doesn't make sense. Fury and Ngannou only happened because Ngannou left the UFC. He did not pave the way for that at all.
UFC fighters have always tried to fight other people outside the UFC and were never allowed except for McGregor. He did not change that because people still cannot fight guys outside of the UFC. If Mcgregor never happened, there would still be demand to see the UFC heavyweight champion box the boxing champion. Do you really think no one would want to see Wilder knockout Brock Lesnar?
The two title thing isn't important because of McGregor...it's because the gap in weight classes are substantial in MMA and so no one really tried to become champ champ except for BJ Penn (and when he tried, it was the biggest fight in the UFC up to that point). If anything it means less now than when McGregor did it...actually that's not even hypothetical, becoming champ-champ isn't nearly as prestigious as it was 10 years ago.
Avatar affected the movie industry more than McGregor did MMA. It made every movie theater start housing for 3D movies for several years, and to this day movie theaters still have 3D. No one would still say Avatar is the most influential movie of all time.
Connor McGregor didn't raise fighter pay....their pay is still the same.
McGregor is called out because he is the biggest name and an easy win. That has nothing to do with being influential though. People were calling out Nate Diaz too, does that mean he is better than Shavkat who no one calls out?
Biggest draw does not mean goat. Derek Jeter iisn't the GOAT of baseball, or even close. Kobe Bryant globally drew more money than every player, including Jordan - he is not the GOAT or even that close to it.
Biggest draw isn't the greatest of all time. Doesn't make any sense. No one would say Dwayne Johnson is a better or more influential actor than Marlon Brando. Just because you like McGregor a lot doesn't mean he is the best at his sport. He was a great fighter who became a media creation.... not even close to one of the goats. He wasn't good enough.
And if you went by influence....still not close to one of the goats. He is not more influential to MMA than Royce Gracie for example, I'm not even sure how that would make sense.
The most popular fighter in MMA right now is nothing like Connor McGregor. So no, not everyone copies his antics. Alex Peireira is the polar opposite of McGregor and just headlined the biggest card of the year.
Saying McGregor is the GOAT is like saying Brock Lesnar is top ten all time, basically. He is the GOAT draw, nothing close to the GOAT fighter. He is the Derek Jeter or David Beckham of MMA.