It’s no secret for anybody that UFC President Dana White loves and adores his Conor Mcgregor.
The Irishman is undeniably the biggest UFC star ever and White knows that better than everybody. The latest evidence for the love White has for “The Notorious” came in after McGregor KO’d Donald Cerrone at UFC 246.
Following the fight, Whitecompared Conor to some of the greatest sports figures ever – Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, and Sugar Ray Leonard.
The 31-year-old ended his 15-months lay off with a 40-second victory over “Cowboy” and White was more than happy.
“Conor is such a huge superstar. I put him up there with Tyson, Leonard,” White told a media conference.
“All of them,” he added when asked if McGregor could be compared to Ali, considered to be the greatest fighter in boxing history.
“He’s got the biggest pay-per-view in pay-per-view history. How many of the top 10 does he have? I don’t even know. He’s one of the biggest stars out there.
“A lot of the times coming in his career he’s been doubted for his talent and he proves everybody wrong every time”.
White was also asked how much McGregor was worth to UFC, with a figure of $2billion suggested by a reporter.
“Two billion dollars? Sounds like a good number, I’ll take that,” White joked. “I don’t know what he’s worth to the company but it’s big.
“You couldn’t go anywhere without seeing this fight and knowing that this fight was on. All the people came out and watched the fight. This is one of those fights that people who normally don’t buy [do] buy, right? So, the number is always massive.
“Then Conor comes out and does what he did tonight. You can’t put a number on that. It’s massive and it’s global. The whole world was watching tonight.”
McGregor’s previous fight came in October 2018, when he was defeated by Khabib Nurmagomedov.
In his own post-fight news conference, McGregor outlined his intention to go up against the Russian once more, and White is eager to make a rematch happen.
“We’re at a place right now where Conor was saying that going into the Khabib fight, he had lots of personal stuff,” said White.
“Some stuff [was] self-inflicted. He had injuries. He had all these things going on. He has been obsessed with getting that rematch because he knows that he wasn’t 100 percent right.
“We’re looking at like Ali-Foreman, Ali-Frazier. This is a massive fight with global appeal. It’s the fight you make, it’s the fight that makes sense. It’s for the 155-pound title.
“It’s huge for Khabib’s legacy, too. If he beat McGregor, then he beats Tony Ferguson, then he beats McGregor again, I mean, this is how this kid, when he retires, he’s 30-something and, oh, he’s beaten all of the best.”
Source: www.boxingscene.com
