SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
January - 2016
43
Should the UFC change their
stand and allow for the op-
portunity for McGregor to hold
two championship belts at the
same time?
Yes, and here’s why.
To quote White, who spoke to
the Fox Sports panel after the
event was over and discussed
the stardom of McGregor,
“Charlie Hunnam from ‘Sons of
Anarchy’ was here tonight, he
said to me, that kid walked out a
star tonight and then went back
into his locker room a superstar.
And it’s absolutely true.”
I don’t believe any of us can ar-
gue that.
A chance like this, with the
groundbreaking opportunity
that McGregor potentially of-
fers, doesn’t come around of-
ten. The UFC should see that
and treat this moment accord-
ingly, do what UFC does better
than every other promotion out
there, take this window, put
smart and clever promotional
push behind him to further
build the brand and further the
progress of the sport of mixed
martial arts to the masses.
Much like they did so success-
fully with Ronda Rousey.
Rousey put the woman’s MMA
on the map, for many fans who
had not previously given it the
time and respect it clearly de-
serves, by making the people
outside the sport realize their
silliness in stating that they
‘don’t like it when women hit
each other’ and change their
ill-conceived view of woman in
combat sport. Ultimately, they
proved that there is no differ-
ent from when the men enter
the cage compared to that of
women. And, when people
state today that they ‘don’t like
it when women hit each oth-
er’, even though it’s a regulat-
ed MMA bout, it is viewed as a
very outdated and uninformed
point of view.
Women’s MMA was a ground-
breaking moment, made pos-
sible by promoting females like
Rousey to the masses, even
though the WMMA had been
going on for a long time be-
fore that. That, and putting the
brand ‘UFC’ out there was the
biggest thing ever Rousey did
for the UFC, beside selling big
numbers of pay-per-view.
That’s a profit enormously big-
ger than what just one pay-
per-view event can bring to the
company beside getting ‘rich
quick’, on one night.
Here is is the opportunity once
more, for something great,
with a charismatic figure as
McGregor.
Again, UFC should put the best
(promotional) minds the com-
pany has to offer, together,
and try to figure out how they
can take advantage of on Mc-
Gregor being a two division
champion, how he can defend
both belts at the same time in-
stead of focusing on what just
one night of pay-per-view can
offer them.
McGregor is great with the
media, so you don’t have to
teach him anything there, just
keep feeding him appearances
and he will keep hitting home
runs for you, making the brand
of UFC more well known to the
public outside of the bubble
of hardcore (and some casual)
MMA fans.
And who knows, maybe Mc-
Gregor can break new grounds
in aspects we haven’t yet
thought about, as long as he
can move himself up and down
in weight to defend both titles
(that is if he even wins in a po-
tential future matchup against
the winner of Saturday’s event),
what’s the harm?
Allow him the opportunity to
be a two divisional champion,
and let’s see where this train
takes us.
