As the biggest superstar in combat sports, Conor McGregor would flourish in any organisation he fought for, right?
Apparently that isn’t the case at all.
ONE Championship CEO Victor Cui claims that he would not sign ‘The Notorious’ to his Singapore-based organisation, even if they had the requisite funds to do so. As laughable as that seems, he actually made a persuasive argument to back it up.
In an interview with MMA Fighting, he explained that the American model of selling fights using trash talk and building storylines, which works quite well in Japan, doesn’t connect with its audience in China and Singapore.
They’ve tried it with UFC veteran Phil Baroni and it blew up in their face. While his skill-set is certainly not on the same level as McGregor, it has also failed with arguably their best fighter, and one of the world’s top welterweights, Ben Askren.
“After he (Askren) won (a recent fight), he stood in the cage and he didn’t say anything really cocky by any standard. I think he said something to the effect of, ‘I’m the best in the world and I’ll fight anyone.’ And the entire stadium booed him. They just thought that was too arrogant. Like, you just won, why do you feel the need to brag about yourself? This was in Singapore, and I was surprised about that.”
It’s not an exact science, although Askren is an elite level fighter, his wrestling-heavy style is completely different to that of the flashy striker McGregor. Most fans would prefer to see a Celtic Cross knockout as opposed to two-and-a-half rounds of rag-dolling followed by a grimey submission.
Although McGregor is the biggest draw in the history of the sport, earning more PPV revenue than anyone else that has come before him, some things are more important than the almighty dollar. For example, freedom. This is one thing Cui would risk losing if he somehow had McGregor on his books.
“Let’s say we had a press conference in China and he threw a water bottle. I would go to jail. They’d put me in jail. I’m not kidding around.
“At the end of the shows in China, I meet with the government officials and they have a checklist. Did we play this song, did we play this song? If you played one extra song, they can throw me in jail and they’ve done that to other concert promoters.”
We’re sure McGregor won’t mind these comments too much. After all, he’s on the cusp of securing what is likely to be the most lucrative prize fight since the dawn of fighting. He doesn’t need to be accessible to the Chinese market.
