Former two division UFC champion Conor McGregor is returning to the Octagon to face UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov for the title at UFC 229.
McGregor is considered one of the biggest, if not the biggest star in MMA history and UFC President Dana White knows why that is.
“Everybody always talks smack that I kiss Conor’s ass and all this other stuff and Conor would completely disagree with that, I think,” White told RT Sport. “Why do you think he’s such a big star? You think he’s such a big star because he’s funny? Yeah, that’s part of it. You think he’s such a big star because he speaks so well? Absolutely part of it. And you just keep going down the line of all these things that make him a star, but number one, first and foremost, the reason he is a global superstar and people love this guy because he’s a real fighter.”
The former two division UFC champion is also returning to action for the first time since defeating Eddie Alvarez to win the UFC Lightweight Title at UFC 205.
White knows that there are fans out there who hate McGregor, but he says those same fans should also respect the fighter.
“You can hate Conor all you want; you’ve got to respect it,” White said. “And I think McGregor has gotten to a point that when he first came in, a lot of the other fighters were looking at him like ‘oh, he’s this hype train’, they see now that he’s more than that. Especially even after the Mayweather fight. Look how well he did in that fight. Conor McGregor is the real deal, man.”
UFC 229 takes place on Saturday, October 6 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
