McGregor leads UFC into Madison Square Garden with trademark brashness

By Victor Mather, New York Times News Service

Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016 | 2 a.m.

NEW YORK — With mixed martial arts finally legal in New York state, the Ultimate Fighting Championship had a rare opportunity to make a splash with its Madison Square Garden debut this Nov. 12.

Putting together a great card was a must. The UFC succeeded, posting a parade of current and former champions.

But adding Conor McGregor pushed it over the top.

McGregor, an Irishman who is the biggest star in the UFC — mouthy, brash and tremendously talented — was in solid form at the Garden on Tuesday night at the official announcement of the card.

“The Irish, we built this town,” he said. “Now we’re coming back to claim what’s ours.”

When his opponent, Eddie Alvarez, made a rejoinder, McGregor replied: “You going to do something over there? I run New York, I run this whole city.” He also predicted a victory in one round, eliciting chants of “Conor, Conor” from the rowdy throng of fans admitted to the news conference.

McGregor, the featherweight champion, will be attempting to be the first fighter in UFC history to hold two belts at once by taking on Alvarez, the lightweight champion. Oddsmakers list McGregor as the slight favorite. Of the two belts, McGregor boasted, “I’m going to wrap one about one shoulder and one on the other.”

After Ronda Rousey’s loss last November, McGregor has become the sport’s biggest star, flamboyant in and out of the ring. In a characteristic move, he declined to defend his featherweight belt after winning it last December, instead making two forays into a weight class two levels higher. His loss in the first bout, to Nate Diaz in March, threatened to tarnish his luster, but he avenged the loss in August in a close decision.

“That fight was five weeks ago,” McGregor said Tuesday. “I came out of that fight fresher than when I went in. Look at his face. Nate will never look the same.”

There are two other championship fights on the Garden card for November, a statement of intent from a promotion that usually likes to spread out its big bouts. Tyron Woodley, who upset Robbie Lawler to take the welterweight crown in July, will make his first defense against a formidable opponent, Stephen Thompson, who has won seven straight fights, several of them with panache. And the women’s strawweight champion, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, will put her perfect record on the line against a fellow Polish fighter, Karolina Kowalkiewicz.

There is also a long list of former champions lined up to fight at the Garden, including Miesha Tate, Frankie Edgar and Chris Weidman, as well as 37-year-old Rashad Evans, a light heavyweight from Niagara Falls, New York, who has retained his popularity despite his best days seemingly being well behind him. Donald Cerrone, known as Cowboy, never a champion but a longtime fan favorite, is in the lineup, too.

Though it finally won its longtime fight to legalize mixed martial arts in New York state, and was recently sold to the talent giant WME-IMG for $4 billion, the UFC is in a period of uncertainty inside the ring. Several accomplished, popular champions have recently lost their belts, including the heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum, Luke Rockhold, Rafael dos Anjos and Lawler. The new champions are lesser known and, in some cases, seemingly little more than journeymen.

Alvarez’s knockout victory over dos Anjos in July was dismissed by McGregor. “He got blessed with a lucky shot,” McGregor said. “His UFC career has been horrendous. That’s why he took this fight for the money he got for the last fight. That says it all.

“He’s broke and he’s desperate.”

Rousey lost her belt to Holly Holm, who lost it to Tate, who in turn lost it to Amanda Nunes. The supremely talented Jon Jones returned from a suspension after a hit-and-run accident, won a bout and then was promptly hit with a doping violation.

That means that McGregor is increasingly important to UFC, which perhaps explains why he has not been pressed to defend his featherweight belt yet.

Asked at one point what he was worth to the company, McGregor brayed, “4.2 billion dollars.” The vociferously favorable crowd reaction seemed to confirm every cent of it.