Conor McGregor, MMA's biggest attraction, will be back in action at UFC 205 in November.
The incomparable Irishman, who still holds the featherweight belt, takes on lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez in the headlining bout at UFC 205. This is the first time two reigning champions have faced each other since BJ Penn and Georges St-Pierre clashed at UFC 94 back in 2009.
Moreover, this will be the promotion's first event in New York City, at legendary Madison Square Garden, and the culmination of years of hard-fought lobbying in the state legislature.
What does all of this mean? Bleacher Report's Steven Rondina and Patrick Wyman mull over the implications of the matchup for the UFC and McGregor and what we can expect inside the Octagon from a champion vs. champion matchup.
Steven: Well, Patrick, McGregor went and did it again.
He flushed the UFC's playbook down the toilet—Dana White loudly claimed in August that McGregor would either defend his featherweight belt or forfeit it—and is now looking to drag the company along with him toward one of its biggest paydays to date.
It's worth doing a quick rundown of how many achievements McGregor has racked up and how historically significant this fight is.
To start, it's just the second time in company history where a fighter has the opportunity to hold two UFC titles at the same time, the first being BJ Penn at UFC 94. If he wins, he'll be just the third man to have held UFC titles in separate weight classes, behind Penn and Randy Couture. He now officially owns the record for biggest pay-per-view in company history and will probably break that record with UFC 205.
On top of all that, let's not forget what UFC 205 is all about: the company's first trip to New York City and its first show in New York since 1995 at UFC 7 after years of struggling to make it happen. It's an important moment for the UFC, and, of course, it will feature Mystic Mac at the top of the bill.
With that in mind, what does this fight mean for Conor's career? How big would a win here be for him?
Patrick: It's hard to overstate what a baller move this is for McGregor. Whatever you might think about the man, he has never shied away from the biggest, toughest fights available to him and has never been a shrinking violet about demanding what he's worth and using his leverage.
Fight the best wrestler at 145 pounds, Chad Mendes, on two weeks' notice? Sure. Clobber the greatest featherweight of all time, Jose Aldo, in 13 seconds? No problem.
Immediately move up to take on lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos, who was riding a dominant buzz saw of a five-fight winning streak? Make it happen. Take on the tough, tricky Nate Diaz as a late replacement and then go after him again after suffering a humiliating loss? Go for it.
Now McGregor is fighting the newly crowned lightweight champion, Eddie Alvarez, less than three months after a grueling, five-round war with Diaz. Alvarez is no picnic, and while we might question the wisdom of a turnaround this quick, there's no denying McGregor's chutzpah or his ambition.
This will be the Irishman's fourth fight in the last 11 months, the first three of which were among the biggest in UFC history. If he wins this fight in the nation's, and perhaps the world's, biggest media market while becoming the first man to simultaneously hold two belts in the promotion, he becomes an untouchable legend.
McGregor would become even more of a superstar than he already is, and frankly, he'll be bigger than the UFC itself.
He has taken the biggest fights and earned the biggest paydays, and he has earned them. If he can get another 1.76 million pay-per-view buys with this event, a real possibility given the magnitude of the event, he will surpass Floyd Mayweather's one-year record, a record built on the boxing giant's massive fight with Manny Pacquiao last year.
How do you feel about this fight, Steven?
Steven: Honestly, I couldn't be happier that this fight was made.
Yes, it stinks for all the people Dana White lied to and for all the contenders left spinning their wheels, and on and on. But two years ago, McGregor said the following (Warning: NSFW language):
"I can make you rich. I change your bum life. You fight me, it's a celebration. When you sign to fight me, it's a celebration. You ring back home, you ring your wife. 'Baby, we've done it. We're rich, baby. Conor McGregor made us rich. Break out the red panties. We're rich, baby.'"
He's right. MMA is a sport where big fights get big money, and there isn't a bigger fight right now than the UFC featherweight champ. I can't think of anyone in MMA more deserving of big money than the lightweight champ.
As our colleague Jonathan Snowden touched on in his lengthy piece on the UFC's CM Punk debacle, the "MMA journey" that people waxed philosophical about with Punk isn't just going into camp and then fighting.
The real "MMA journey" that the real fighters go through is paying out of pocket to compete. It's scraping together money for camps. It's incrementally going from dive bars to local performing arts centers to overseas auditoriums in the hopes that a major organization notices.
Alvarez has paid those dues so many times and has seen so little in return that I'm ecstatic about seeing him finally getting both the mainstream recognition and the big payday that he has so richly deserved for the last eight years.
How do you feel about the fight, Patrick? Do you share my unbridled, unrepentant enthusiasm for this bout?
Patrick: I do, on several different levels.
First, this was the fight the UFC had to make. The promotion has gone out of its way to make its first appearance in the nation's largest media market a big deal, presenting it as the culmination of its decades-long quest for legitimacy and mainstream visibility.
You can't run your first event in a star-driven environment without a star. The UFC had to have either Ronda Rousey or McGregor to draw interest from the likes of The Tonight Show and other mass media outlets that can interest a broad swathe of potential viewers, and Rousey doesn't seem to be ready to fight anytime soon.
Second, it's the right fight to make from a promotional standpoint. Despite its unbelievable depth and its vast array of exceptional fighters, the lightweight division hasn't had a legitimate draw since BJ Penn lost his belt to Frankie Edgar and decamped for the less demanding weight cuts at 170 pounds.
The addition of McGregor gives attention to a division that deserves it, a division that has the talent to form the backbone of the UFC for years to come. We've already seen the McGregor effect with Nate Diaz, but fighters like Tony Ferguson, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Alvarez could all make good use of that shine as well.
Finally, it's just a fantastic matchup. Will McGregor's pressure be enough to corner Alvarez against the fence? Will Alvarez's wrestling skills be enough to get McGregor to the ground or otherwise stifle him? Can McGregor crack Alvarez's dentable chin?
These are compelling questions. How do you see the fight playing out, Steven?
Steven: While I ranted over Alvarez and talked about how happy I am for him, I'm not going to pretend this is a good matchup for him. This could be ugly, not necessarily because McGregor's a better fighter than potential lightweight contenders like Nurmagomedov and Ferguson, but because he's a much worse matchup for Alvarez.
There are three reasons for that. First, Alvarez almost always enjoys a speed advantage on opponents and has used that to control the center of the cage against most opposition. McGregor, however, will likely enjoy an edge in both lateral and forward quickness. That could make things very tricky for a fighter that does his best work when he's mixing the threats of takedowns and strikes.
Second, McGregor will most likely have a big physical edge on the champ. Alvarez is a small lightweight, and will give up a significant reach advantage to McGregor (69" vs. 74"). On top of that, McGregor's feud with Diaz saw him pack on a great deal of muscle. Because of that, he's better equipped for a run at lightweight today than he was at UFC 196.
Third, Alvarez's chin is soft. He's been rocked in the majority of his fights since 2008 and has never been especially difficult to hit. That’s not ideal against somebody like McGregor who throws every fiber of his physical and spiritual being into his long, accurate, devastating left hand.
Because of all that, this is McGregor's fight to lose in my book. The worst-case scenario is something along the lines of his fight with Chad Mendes, where McGregor survived in grappling exchanges and picked away at distance before closing things out in the second.
Agree, Patrick?
Patrick: The most likely outcome here, given McGregor's crushing power and Alvarez's suspect ability to absorb a punch, involves Alvarez's staring into a doctor's flashlight at the end of the fight.
With that said, the lightweight kingpin has a few different ways of making this a rough night for McGregor.
Dos Anjos is one of the most skilled pressure fighters we've ever seen, a true master of forcing his opponent to the fence, and even he struggled to corral Alvarez. McGregor is faster than Dos Anjos, but I'm not convinced he's better at pressuring.
If this turns into a striking matchup in the middle of the cage, it's a coin-flip fight. Alvarez is a tremendous counterpuncher and can really crack. With the freedom to move at will, he can pile up damage on the hittable McGregor.
Moreover, Alvarez's wrestling is a real concern for the Irishman. Unlike Mendes, Alvarez won't drain his gas tank inside eight minutes, and if he doesn't complete his takedowns he can always try to grind McGregor against the fence, as he did to Anthony Pettis earlier this year.
All of this points to a distinct path to victory for Alvarez: Stick and move at range to score points and then tie up whenever possible, either in the clinch or with takedown attempts. That's a recipe for winning rounds and taking a decision.
Still, McGregor's power is otherworldly, and even if he loses rounds he can always land a big shot. Over a 25-minute fight, it's almost certain that he will, and he has the killer instinct to capitalize and make sure Alvarez doesn't get back up.
If he can place that gorgeous left hand, McGregor will have transcended the UFC and the sport of MMA on the largest possible stage. He'll be the biggest star combat sports has seen in decades, and he might just be the biggest ever.
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