Dana White: Conor McGregor ‘is my Ali and Tyson’

[Milgrim]

This is an unncessarily cynical take. Outside of MayPac, Mayweather’s PPV buys were comparable and even, as in the Berto fight, below Conor’s. May was the bigger star when the fight was made by every metric, including social media, but check those social media numbers now. Conor v Khabib fight will probably do close to 2m buys. Either Diaz or GSP afterward would do the same or more. The point is Conor is not only wayyyy bigger than Mayweather was when May was his age, but even bigger than him now. And Mayweather is undoubtedly going down as a legend.
So to say O well Conor just got whooped by him and that’s all that happened is disengenuous. For me actually it was a passing of the torch, not just from the old PPV king of combat sports to the new, but from boxing to MMA (but that’s irrelevant to the larger point).

I'm not trying to be cynical. If I point out that soccer was much bigger than boxing, is that necessarily cynical or just a matter of fact? We should probably talk about PPV revenue instead of just PPV buys, but I'm not sure either is a legitimate measure of overall impact. As much as I don't like him, Mayweather is out of Conor's league.

For the record, I don't hold it against Conor that he got badly outclassed. It was Floyd's sport, not Conors. If Floyd ever got in the octagon, it would be comical.

... and I would argue that Mayweather didn't have nearly the cultural impact that Tyson did, in part because the HW division is the gold standard in boxing. Yes, he eventually fall apart, but not before going 37-0 cleaning out the (admittedly not stellar) division and absolutely destroying the champion at age 20 and the 31-0 LHW champion a couple years later. The hype at the time was incredible.

 

[Roljo]

Ali and Tyson can actually fight though.

"Box"

 

[Sweater of AV]

"Box"

"Fight"

 

[ColombianFist]

Dana has always been biased towards money draws. same with andy silva, Jones, Rhonda, Cain ETC..

McG only cares for money while Ali was an icon against discrimination.

 

[AimedWithV]

McG only cares for money while Ali was an icon against discrimination.

I'm sure Ali's boxing promoters valued Ali especially for his anti descrimination views...

 

[dipstickjimmy]

Conor will be more popular than both when its all said and done.

Being know isn't the same accomplishment today as it was in Ali's time. There were people in Africa , Asia and many other "Remote" places who all knew who he was and didn't have iphones in their hands broadcasting twitter and Instagram. Ali accomplished his greatness in the ring and then surpassed it out of the ring. Standing up for what you believe and sticking to it under threat of losing your title and ability to earn in your prime is not something I see Conor ever doing. Would he have skipped out on his May Mac Payday for his beliefs?

Ali was stripped for objecting to the War in Vietnam. Conor was stripped 2 times because he never fights when he has something to lose. Champions defend.

 

[Corleone187]

 

[flyingoctoplata]