Yes it is. If it wasn't, Conor could just go to Bellator and enjoy the same money/fame. That simply wouldn't happen. Other promotions don't have the huge fights or marketing power that the UFC has.
And sure the UFC would love to have him, but if Conor doesn't play ball they'll find someone else that will. It's a rapidly growing sport and Conor won't be the first or last superstar.
OK a couple of things. First of all, there have been some pretty big fights that did big numbers outside of the UFC in recent times. Kimbo v Shamrock, Shamrock v Gracie, Fedor v Random Can. They weren't competitive. They weren't good - hell, they were f&*king terrible fights. But they were promoted and people watched in big numbers.
And I think you're making a couple of pretty big assumptions about the UFC's ability to replace someone like Conor. Seriously, they have exactly
two stars of that size in the organisation right now. Conor is one, Rousey is the other. Rousey likely isn't going to hang around a lot longer.
If it was easy to build up stars of that calibre, don't you think the UFC would have done it already? I'm sure they've tried. But there's a couple of simple facts about it: it takes a hell of a lot of time and resources, and not everybody is cut out to be that big of a star. It took years for both McGregor and Rousey to get to this level, and the UFC doesn't exactly have any other ready-made stars with that kind of pull waiting in the wings to step in right this second.
This isn't boxing. There is no-one in the UFC ( former or present ) that can go out and put on their own PPV and get the same numbers the UFC can get for them. There are tons of casual's that don't even call MMA by its name .. it's all UFC to them. I am not saying it can't be successfully done. I think it can but It would need more star power than just one fighter. And they might end up making less then fighting for UFC would pay them.
This isn't just about Conor. Sure the UFC owners might be out a few million from this one event but how much money do they gain by standing firm and sending a clear message to everyone. Do Media ( which garners interest and up PPV buys ) or you won't be fighting. They made it very clear they are in control. If they let Conor not do press then Ronda is next ... G.S.P. ( if he ever comes back ). They would never get any Diaz to show up to press related events again. This is a long term play that will pay them back what they lost ten fold in future events.
I agree on your second point, 100%. For the UFC this is clearly not
just about Conor, it's about keeping the rest of the roster in line. How well their approach works remains to be seen though, as there's been a hell of a lot of fighters taking Conor's side in this...
So yes turning down more Conor money now might be an investment in stopping other fighters doing the same in the future, but it seems a bit crazy to me. No other fighter except for Rousey has this kind of promotional power right now - if
anyone else on the roster tried this, the UFC is already in a position to smack them back down. That wouldn't change if they let Conor get away with this and left him on the card (in real terms it wouldn't be billed as him "getting away with it" either - it'd be billed as them coming to a win-win agreement). And in the future if someone else does build up that kind of clout, that's what's known as a "good" problem, because it means you've got a bona fide star on your
hands who's already made you millions and millions of dollars.
On the first point though, as I mentioned above it's been tried with some success pretty recently. If Bellator and Rizin can draw eyeballs with has-beens like Shamrock, Gracie, Kimbo and (I feel bad putting him in this category, but let's be real here) Fedor then imagine what they could do with someone young and relevant like a McGregor...
It's all too easy to forget too how organisations like Bellator were nipping at the UFC's heels just a few short years ago. The UFC's
current period of dominance was built almost entirely on the back of McGregor and Rousey. But look back to say 2014, before those two stars fully came into their own, the UFC's numbers were down and Bellator was quickly gaining ground.
I don't know where to begin. Hmm. Comparing boxing organisations with the UFC is just stupid. There are so many and none of them is dominating the sport like the UFC is with MMA. So no one cares about boxing organisations because they don't have the influence that Ufc has in MMA. Some people think that ufc is the sport.
I didn't say the Fertittas don't want more money. They don't NEED it desperately like Conor does. They don't have to accept treats and ultimatums. It doesn't matter how many PPV packages Conor sells or how many dickriders worship him like a god. You don't want to shoot commercials? You are out. You don't play that game against powerful people who have nothing to lose.
*shrugs*
Sure the UFC is the dominant organisation in the sport right now. But if that were ever going to change, it'd take a fighter with a massive following, both with fans and the media, going out on his own. Conor has that capacity. And Conor clearly isn't "desperate for the money" either, otherwise he wouldn't have taken this risk to begin with.
Plus there's a flipside to your "powerful people with nothing to lose" argument because long term, they
do have something to lose: fighters like McGregor, and the substantial investment they've made in him. The UFC would be stupid to let him hit free agency because you know Bellator would pay pretty much any price for him.
So maybe you don't play games with powerful people who have nothing to lose. But you also don't take stupid risks with your biggest asset when he could walk out the door and take his earning power to your competition, instantly legitimising them in the process.
Years like 2014 proved that even if most people think the UFC
is the whole sport of MMA, those three letters alone only bring a small to medium number of viewers. The UFC needs its stars to achieve the kind of success it wants to achieve.
