Is UFC using GSP to push out McGregor?

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TedCzech

Ted Czech
Jan 11, 2016
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Seems like UFC expects GSP to beat Bisping, drop down and take out Woodley. In that scenario, Conor's "specialness" is diminished and UFC gains the upper hand in their business relationship, GSP lays claim to GOAT, and they get to wring max mileage out of their new contract with him. They've basically lined up Conor to fight two guys with styles that present him a lot of problems (Nate D and Khabib), and IIRC he's only got 4 fights left on his contract. A contract that's paying him a bundle.

And I don't think they want Woodley holding the belt in the GSP division. :)
They definitely figured out they can't rely on one star -- with Conor on prego-Dee leave, Ronda maybe gone forever, Brock busted and back in WWE, Anderson slowing down and Jones out until June, they really needed to make the deal with GSP. ... That said, I think there's room for Conor and GSP ... and who knows, maybe down the line, if they both keep winning, we could be looking at a fight between the two, which would be yuge.
 

Andrewsimar Palhardass

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Jan 8, 2016
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Its been 4 years so you can't really compare that either
Why not? That's GSP in his prime. Unless you expect GSP to come in and out-sell his former self now (not going to happen) then if anything I am handicapping this in his favor. I am not sure what your contention is here.
 

Zeph

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Jan 22, 2015
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Its been 4 years so you can't really compare that either
GSP has sold as headliner 8.26m ppvs in 12 outings for an average of 688k buys per ppv.

McGregor has sold 6.117m ppvs in 5 outings 1.223mil buys per ppv.

Pay-per-view : MMAPayout.com: The Business of MMA

McGregor holds 4 of the top 5 ppvs of all time. GSP doesn't have one.

Pay Per View Buys | Tapology

McGregor has 3 of the top 5 gates of all time, GSP just the 1, McGregor has the top gate at $17.7mil compared to GSP's $12mil.

List of UFC records - Wikipedia

GSP is a big star, don't get me wrong, but McGregor, by every metric, is on another level.
 

Andrewsimar Palhardass

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Jan 8, 2016
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You are judging 4 years ago buy today's standards
How different are today's standards? Only Conor cards and UFC 200 sell. You can't really say that the standards are different today merely based on the fact that Conor sells so well. He's the reason for the higher standards. He actually hit right after a couple of the UFC's worst years in recent history and pulled them out of it nearly single-handedly. I don't think there's even a debate as to who the biggest star is.
 

jason73

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How different are today's standards? Only Conor cards and UFC 200 sell. You can't really say that the standards are different today merely based on the fact that Conor sells so well. He's the reason for the higher standards. He actually hit right after a couple of the UFC's worst years in recent history and pulled them out of it nearly single-handedly. I don't think there's even a debate as to who the biggest star is.
did i ever once say that gsp was a bigger star than conor? conor sells well but has had a huge push from the ufc as well .he also fought plenty of guys on short notice and never once defended a title.GSP didnt get the same push and still sold 55k tickets to fight jake shields.if the ufc was smart they would throw a boat load of cash at both fighters and get GSP to fight conor at 170
 

jason73

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PPV's don't inflate over time, they fluctuate depending on the headliner.
no they dont but the cost of ppv has inflated and so has the cost of tickets driving up live gate .gsp also sold 55k tickets in canadian dollars with a 30% difference to usd
 

Filthy

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Jun 28, 2016
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I think I overstated with 'pushing out'. But I definitely think they're positioning GSP to increase their negotiating leverage in the short term. I'll withhold judgment on their long-term goals, but Conor will need to grow some serious star-power to justify what he costs - in dollars and other metrics.
 

Andrewsimar Palhardass

Women, dinosaurs, and the violence of the octagon.
Jan 8, 2016
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did i ever once say that gsp was a bigger star than conor? conor sells well but has had a huge push from the ufc as well .he also fought plenty of guys on short notice and never once defended a title.GSP didnt get the same push and still sold 55k tickets to fight jake shields.if the ufc was smart they would throw a boat load of cash at both fighters and get GSP to fight conor at 170
It could definitely be inferred that you thought they were at least equals based on your previous posts on this thread. If you don't think that's the case and you didn't mean to insinuate that, my apologies for being mistaken.

I'm tired of hearing the "push" stuff with McGregor. They pushed him because he has charisma, not the other way around. Don't you think the UFC would like to have more than one star? It's obvious why they would want to diversify the stardom, but there isn't another person whose charisma warrants the amount of money they used to market Conor. You can throw 50 million dollars at marketing almost the whole rest of the roster and none of them would pull like Conor does. Think of what a Cowboy Cerrone media tour would do. Do you think he's on the cover of GQ in a couple of years? Conor got pushed, but he got pushed because he's a special guy. He's not special because he was pushed.
 
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Wild

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Dec 31, 2014
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UFC basically abandoning the Canada market has to have some negative impact on GSP as well, no?
 

Zeph

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Jan 22, 2015
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UFC basically abandoning the Canada market has to have some negative impact on GSP as well, no?
Maybe, maybe not. Markets tend to go hot and cold depending on what boxers they have at the top. GSP is still a well known name. I think it hurts upcoming Canadian talent from reaching their full potential, but I don't think they have a Canadian, other than GSP, that can reach the heights of GSP.

GSP while not being the most expressive guy has a certain charimsa, it was helped by coming to the cage in his gi, and such like that. I definitely think the Reebok deal has hurt the UFC and fighters ability to establish a brand. That's at least one thing working against fighters now that weren't there when GSP was coming up, as well, and there is likely more. Number of shows comes to mind.
 
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