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Conor’s last legitimate win (I’m excluding Ceronne’s Olympic level diving) was almost 8 years ago.
Eight!
Entire combat sports careers have started and ended within that timespan. 2016 feels like a world away now, separated by more high profile news events and social changes than we can make sense of.
Conor’s comeback feels akin to a band regrouping and going back out on tour when their style of music is no longer fashionable. In 1986, Motley Crue was the ‘cool’ rebellious band that was breaking all the rules and packing venues. By 1994, no one would have been caught dead at one of their shows.
I think there are 2 sub-narratives to Conor’s return that aren’t being factored in.
1. Dana’s capacity for pettiness is legendary. Despite succeeding widely beyond his own dreams, he bitterly seems to hold on to grudges for long periods of time. He HATED the Conor boxing match with the fury of 10,000 suns, and I’ll bet he’s still pissed at Conor for making him indulge the freak show that was McGregor/Mayweather. Sand stays in Dana’s vagina forever and I’m positive that he resents Conor for daring to become greater than the UFC itself.
2. Who’s really interested in seeing Conor fight again? It’s not fight fans, that’s for sure. There’s an agreement amongst hardcore viewers that Conor is a shot fighter now, and isn’t nearly as interesting as he once was. We all know how devastating, and frankly career ending, that injury Conor sustained in his last fight with Poirier really was.
That leaves casuals. Are they still there? I have a strong suspicion that the answer is a resounding “no” these days. Conor’s antics were like watching a magician perform the same trick thrice in succession. When you’ve seen it enough times, you know how the trick is performed and it doesn’t hold the same spell over you it once did. At this point, if a Conor fight were to be announced, I’d wager that most casuals would say “Oh yeah, I was wondering what ever happened to that goofy guy!” not “Oh shit, the king is back and I’d better tune in so I don’t experience the fear of missing out!”.
I get the sense that the gears have just ground to a halt at this point because the world we live in is so different from the world that Conor ascended to stratospheric heights in. I’ll bet that when the UFC runs projections for PPV buys on a Conor card and contrasts them with Conor’s expectations for PPV buys, the difference is off the charts. Hell, I’m not even sure that Riyadh Season, with its inexhaustible well of cash, would be interested in co-financing the thing either given Conor’s absence from the general public’s awareness.
This is all to say that I think we’ll see Conor headlining a BKFC card against Pee-Wee “Hands of Plush” Wimpley long before we’ll ever see him in the UFC ever again.
It’s entirely possible that Conor just isn’t nearly as profitable as he once was.
Eight!
Entire combat sports careers have started and ended within that timespan. 2016 feels like a world away now, separated by more high profile news events and social changes than we can make sense of.
Conor’s comeback feels akin to a band regrouping and going back out on tour when their style of music is no longer fashionable. In 1986, Motley Crue was the ‘cool’ rebellious band that was breaking all the rules and packing venues. By 1994, no one would have been caught dead at one of their shows.
I think there are 2 sub-narratives to Conor’s return that aren’t being factored in.
1. Dana’s capacity for pettiness is legendary. Despite succeeding widely beyond his own dreams, he bitterly seems to hold on to grudges for long periods of time. He HATED the Conor boxing match with the fury of 10,000 suns, and I’ll bet he’s still pissed at Conor for making him indulge the freak show that was McGregor/Mayweather. Sand stays in Dana’s vagina forever and I’m positive that he resents Conor for daring to become greater than the UFC itself.
2. Who’s really interested in seeing Conor fight again? It’s not fight fans, that’s for sure. There’s an agreement amongst hardcore viewers that Conor is a shot fighter now, and isn’t nearly as interesting as he once was. We all know how devastating, and frankly career ending, that injury Conor sustained in his last fight with Poirier really was.
That leaves casuals. Are they still there? I have a strong suspicion that the answer is a resounding “no” these days. Conor’s antics were like watching a magician perform the same trick thrice in succession. When you’ve seen it enough times, you know how the trick is performed and it doesn’t hold the same spell over you it once did. At this point, if a Conor fight were to be announced, I’d wager that most casuals would say “Oh yeah, I was wondering what ever happened to that goofy guy!” not “Oh shit, the king is back and I’d better tune in so I don’t experience the fear of missing out!”.
I get the sense that the gears have just ground to a halt at this point because the world we live in is so different from the world that Conor ascended to stratospheric heights in. I’ll bet that when the UFC runs projections for PPV buys on a Conor card and contrasts them with Conor’s expectations for PPV buys, the difference is off the charts. Hell, I’m not even sure that Riyadh Season, with its inexhaustible well of cash, would be interested in co-financing the thing either given Conor’s absence from the general public’s awareness.
This is all to say that I think we’ll see Conor headlining a BKFC card against Pee-Wee “Hands of Plush” Wimpley long before we’ll ever see him in the UFC ever again.
It’s entirely possible that Conor just isn’t nearly as profitable as he once was.
