Dana White Under Oath Claimed He Made Conor a Star

How much credit should White get for Conor's fame?

  • Total voters
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The argument is that if Conor McGregor, (or any future MMA superstar) had an open market of purse bids like in boxing, they could actually be independent contractors. Unlike being treated as employees and given contractor rights. UFC lawyers are putting into writing that they're undercutting fighter pay because the fighters don't have a collective seat at the table.

There's a UFC card every other weekend for almost half a decade now and there are still less than a handful of MMA superstars. The rare combination of superstar fighters is more than a platform, Dana White and even the UFC.

How can the UFC platform have made Conor when they can't make other superstars?

What """platform""" has the UFC built anyway? They've monopolized fighter contracts

They've given us promotional titles and worse, promotional rankings that make absolutely no sense.

If MMA had independent world championship titles with independent rankings and mandatory fights then having a world title in MMA might mean something

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MCS said:
Any semblance of protection was over when the Aldo fight was booked. Aldo was supposed to kill him. Then he pulled out and a phone call later it was Conor vs the strongest wrestler below 155 on 2 weeks notice. Hardly a reasonable risk. The safe thing would be to re-schedule Aldo. At least he can fight for the belt that way.
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Has Conor defended the Featherweight title against any of the wrestlers at Featherweight? Has Conor defended the Lightweight title against any of the wrestlers at Lightweight? Conor was protected and gifted even more in 2016, but that's outside the scope of what I was discussing.
 
dc007 said:
He did a little as he was the one who gave him the opportunity to shine on the big stage but Conor did the rest.
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This. Dana set him up but conor had to go out there and ko mendes, and then ko the p4p number 1 guy in 13 seconds. Not to mention, his charisma on the mic. Listen to cringe boy Covington on the mic and then listen to guys like conor and chael. That’s something you can’t teach.
 
Obviously without the UFC platform Conor wouldn't have been able to build himself, so Dana's not wrong.

Dana acting like it was the UFC's marketing and promotional efforts that turned Conor into a star is disingenuous, though. Conor won fights and developed his own method and strategy for promoting himself, and those things from Conor are the difference between Conor the megastar multi-millionaire, and Conor the top tier FW making 100k/100k at best.
 
acannxr said:
Has Conor defended the Featherweight title against any of the wrestlers at Featherweight? Has Conor defended the Lightweight title against any of the wrestlers at Lightweight? Conor was protected and gifted even more in 2016, but that's outside the scope of what I was discussing.
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His goal coming into the promotion was to repeat 2-div success, like in CW, and he got the self-made popularity to take on whoever at 155 to accomplish this. Short notice, opponent change, whatever. He was supposed to fight RDA, who, like many of Conor's opponents (including Cole Miller, a grappler), pulled out.
 
Johnny_Knuckles said:
Way to miss the point.

Conor was already making waves in Europe before Dana caught wind. What Conor did was replicate his success and persona on a bigger stage and everyone lapped it up, and with that came the millions.

Conor wasn’t some 7-2 jobber like Dana has tried to imply, somewhat embarrassingly.
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Yeah, he was making such crazy waves that his base salary was a whopping 8K/8K for his debut on a European card. Nobody denies that he already had some hype, but that wasn't close to be enough to build a superstar on its own.
 
Dana lied under oath if he said 7-2. Conor was 12-2.

But he's right Conor got a TS off sever, avoided all the wrestler when FW is stacked with them save a no camp mendes who they knew could not go even 2 rounds. Not t mention free TS at LW after poor showing with DIAZ.

Conor was given the guided tour at FW and free ticket at LW. All UFC's doing

Notice when people say "i don't blame Conor but UFC" Thats what they mean.

Anyway I went with most - Conor made the most out of opportunities given by Dana.
 
ThunderStruck said:
It's 100% true. Conor was nothing before than 1 year press conference tour before the first aldo fight. Thats when we got to see the Conor who prepares his trash talking lines the night before press conferences and everyne of his dumbass fanbois falling in love with it.
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You're thinking too small. Conor was breaking records on fight pass before he ever stepped into the spotlight.
 
Without the UFC exposure he is nothing. Lol at thinkig him in bellator he becomes as big
 
12ga. said:
Dana lied under oath if he said 7-2. Conor was 12-2.

But he's right Conor got a TS off sever, avoided all the wrestler when FW is stacked with them save a no camp mendes who they knew could not go even 2 rounds. Not t mention free TS at LW after poor showing with DIAZ.

Conor was given the guided tour at FW and free ticket at LW. All UFC's doing

Notice when people say "i don't blame Conor but UFC" Thats what they mean.

Anyway I went with most - Conor made the most out of opportunities given by Dana.
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Yeah unlike say Bisping or Anderson title shot road. Conor was a joke. Stripped 2x due to inacction lol

TJ will win 2 belts and defend be first to i bet
 
Dana, the UFC and Conor all deserve equal credit for taking Conor from unknown to "UFC star" level.

But Conor's subsequent rise above "UFC star" level to where he is now is more due to Conor himself.
 
The ScorpioN said:
Not easy.

Favorable.

Only Mendes was a stylistic nightmare, and he came in on like a week's notice just happy to be getting his first ever big paycheck.
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nate at 170 pounds definitely wasn't favourable, maybe it would've been at 155.

but i think everyone underestimated Nate , including Conor. Prob also underestimated the weight


Nate at 170 was his toughest style opponent to date though, the weight being a big factor in that.

That said i think you underestimate the danger of short notice fights to all parties involved. So do most it seems
 
acannxr said:
Dana helped Conor's career by talking about him in interviews, featuring him in commercials/advertisements, and most importantly protecting him through matchmaking.

#30 Brimage: Striker
#67 Holloway: Striker
#30 Brandao: Striker/BJJ
#10 Poirier: Striker/BJJ
#19 Siver: Striker/BJJ | Title Eliminator

Just look at that for a second: no wrestlers and he received a title eliminator fight against the #19 ranked Featherweight. To understand that kind of absurdity: if you did the same thing at the same time in the Lightweight division that would be equivalent to #7 Gilbert Melendez receiving a title eliminator fight against #19 Joe Lauzon.

Meanwhile, at the same time McGregor received a title eliminator against Siver, you had #2 Edgar, #3 Mendes, and #5 Lamas all ranked above #7 McGregor with Lentz being at #9. What they all have in common? Wrestling backgrounds. You also had #6 Swanson whose a very unorthodox striker and had only ever been knocked out once (vs. Aldo, 2009).

Is it any wonder that the UFC tied up all these stylistic nightmares by pairing them against one another? Edgar/Swanson on Nov 2014, Mendes/Lamas on Apr 2015, and Lentz/Oliveira on May 2015.

Booking a short-notice Mendes against McGregor was an acceptable risk for the UFC, especially given the amount of money they had dumped into promoting UFC 189. And we saw what happened while Mendes had energy...
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i agree

that said

fighting a wrestler on 2 weeks notice when preparing for a striker and winning sort of erased that.

Even more so when that was probably the scariest weigh in i've ever seen

Least favourable matchup / circumstance he could be given
 
Seaside said:
Yeah unlike say Bisping or Anderson title shot road. Conor was a joke. Stripped 2x due to inacction lol

TJ will win 2 belts and defend be first to i bet
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I agree with your first statement 100% but as much as I like TJ he still has work to do at BW. Like get loss back from Cruz.

In general I don't like this two belt nonsense. It's unfair to other fighters because champs barley defend twice a year no way they can defend two belts twice a year so guys who have very short careers are on hold for one guy to get all the shine.

The only super fight I liked was GSP Silva because they had no one left to fight. And it didnt happen
 
acannxr said:
Dana helped Conor's career by talking about him in interviews, featuring him in commercials/advertisements, and most importantly protecting him through matchmaking.

#30 Brimage: Striker
#67 Holloway: Striker
#30 Brandao: Striker/BJJ
#10 Poirier: Striker/BJJ
#19 Siver: Striker/BJJ | Title Eliminator

Just look at that for a second: no wrestlers and he received a title eliminator fight against the #19 ranked Featherweight. To understand that kind of absurdity: if you did the same thing at the same time in the Lightweight division that would be equivalent to #7 Gilbert Melendez receiving a title eliminator fight against #19 Joe Lauzon.

Meanwhile, at the same time McGregor received a title eliminator against Siver, you had #2 Edgar, #3 Mendes, and #5 Lamas all ranked above #7 McGregor with Lentz being at #9. What they all have in common? Wrestling backgrounds. You also had #6 Swanson whose a very unorthodox striker and had only ever been knocked out once (vs. Aldo, 2009).

Is it any wonder that the UFC tied up all these stylistic nightmares by pairing them against one another? Edgar/Swanson on Nov 2014, Mendes/Lamas on Apr 2015, and Lentz/Oliveira on May 2015.

Booking a short-notice Mendes against McGregor was an acceptable risk for the UFC, especially given the amount of money they had dumped into promoting UFC 189. And we saw what happened while Mendes had energy...
Click to expand...


Boom! Post of the day you win.
 
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