Conor
McGregor believes
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship is a better place for former
Ultimate Fighting Championship athletes than other mixed
martial arts promotions.
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McGregor Sports and Entertainment
became part owner of BKFC earlier this year. Explaining his
interest in the organization, McGregor said he sees the MMA
promotions space as kind of saturated with the UFC established as a
clear industry leader.
According to McGregor, the BKFC is an entirely different space that
generates more interest than rival MMA promotions of the UFC.
McGregor noted that former UFC fighters fighting for rival MMA
promotions often fail to generate much buzz. Compared to that,
“Notorious” finds BKFC fights featuring UFC alums like Mike Perry,
Eddie
Alvarez and others much more entertaining.
“We’ve got the UFC as the premier mixed martial arts organization
and the rest of them aren’t really anything right, let’s be real.
The rest of them, their best events are past fighters of the UFC
maybe fighting each other or maybe fighting someone in the
mid-level. It doesn’t really generate mega buzz for me, or for the
fans, judging by the numbers,” McGregor recently told The MacLife. “Let’s take Justin
Gaethje who’s a UFC veteran, former BMF holder… interim belt
[holder]. Take him, let’s put him in bareknuckle, that’s exciting.
That is really, really exciting. Now let’s take him and put him in
another MMA organization, not so much.”
McGregor also assures that the UFC is extremely happy about his
partnership with the BKFC, as it immediately took out any possible
element of competition.
“It’s different, it actually blends well with the UFC, which I’m
very very happy about,” he said. “And I believe it’s music to the
ears of the Ultimate Fighting Championship that I am part of this.
It just dissolves the competition. It has popped the UFC’s
competition like a balloon, it deflated it like a popped
balloon.”
While they only recently partnered, McGregor has been dabbling in
the BKFC for a while now. The former UFC double champ attended an
event last year where he faced off with BKFC superstar Perry.
McGregor’s Forged Irish Stout and Proper 12 Whiskey were also
sponsors for the BKFC card where their partnership was announced.
The Irishman revealed that the biggest hook for him was the
matchmaking in the promotion, for which he credits company
president Dave Feldman.
“I’ll tell you what I fell in love with with the bareknuckle, was
the matchmaking. The matchmaking from [Dave] Feldman has been
stellar,” McGregor said. “Really, really incredible matchmaking.
That event alone, Luke
Rockhold and Mike Perry
and [Eddie] Alvarez and [Chad] Mendes, that’s great matchmaking.
Now we had a Perry and MVP, we had some great matches on the
card.”
McGregor is set to return to action after a three-year hiatus
against Michael
Chandler (23-8) in the main event at
UFC 303 UFC 303 on June 29.