“I am not stupid. I am a very bright guy. I know that in the fighting game, you get people who get brain damage and do themselves long-term harm. I am into it in a big way, and I am good at it, and I am going to get very, very rich and then I will get out and we will see what comes after that.”
-Conor McGregor explains his goals for a short-term MMA career in an interview with British GQ.
Penick’s Analysis: For fighters who are able to rocket to the top, that’s a strategy of which they can certainly take advantage. Get paid big money a handful of times, and move on. Now, with McGregor’s expensive tastes, he may need to stick around a bit to get the type of money that he constitutes as him being “very, very rich,” but if he can beat Jose Aldo in December, he could have the UFC printing him money. A win over Aldo makes him not only the biggest star the featherweight division’s ever seen, but proves himself its best fighter as well. It would potentially mean big business for the UFC as others try to knock him off that perch. If he pulls it off, though, he’ll have the opportunity for some more big paydays in the next year or two, and then we’ll see where he’s at from there.
Leave a Reply