Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey are without a doubt the two biggest stars in the UFC. Rousey helped put women’s MMA on the map and became the biggest mainstream star the sport has ever seen.
McGregor’s become the biggest box office attraction in the history of the sport. He made history at UFC 205, knocking out Eddie Alvarez in the second round to become the first fighter in UFC history to hold two titles at the same time.
Rousey took 13 months off after getting brutally knocked out and losing her women’s bantamweight title Holly Holm at UFC 193. She came back to regain her belt at UFC 207 against Amanda Nunes. The California native didn’t get the result she wanted, getting knocked out again, this time in the first round.
The California native’s been getting criticized at every turn. One of the main contentions was the fact she imposed a media blackout in the lead-up to UFC 207 and still continues to do so.
McGregor tried to do the same when he was scheduled to rematch Nate Diaz at UFC 200. The UFC demanded the Irishman come do a small media tour to promote the event. He refused and only wanted to come do the final leg of the tour which was in New York City. The UFC didn’t relent and pulled him from the card.
Seeing what he went through and what happened with Rousey, McGregor thought it was great for her to not have do the media obligations in the lead-up to her return.
“I didn’t give a [expletive],” McGregor said during his online pay-per-view interview on Saturday. “I’m the two-weight world champion at that stage. I’m [expletive] richer than rich. I don’t give a bollocks. She didn’t have to do the media and that’s great. If they would have done that to me I would have showed up at UFC 200, but we split the card. UFC 200 did great numbers, UFC 202 did great numbers. It also gave me that extra bit of time that looking back, I probably needed. I probably needed that extra time. So everything worked out perfect for me. I’m sitting there and I heard she requested no media and got no media and I was happy for her because that’s what she asked for. Then I also didn’t give a [expletive].”
