Ultimate Fighting Championship has grown as a company in so many ways in the past few years, and a lot of their successes can be credited to the hard work of Conor McGregor. The UFC Lightweight Champion has taken the company to new heights and is the first mainstream crossover star since Ronda Rousey.
McGregor shook the world of mixed martial arts to its core a year ago when he revealed he would be retiring from the sport. “Thanks for the cheese,” he said before sending his retirement tweet to the world. Of course, he would come back to the octagon, but his social media message gained so much attention, it was re-tweeted more times than Kobe Bryant’s retirement tweet.
McGregor would come back to the octagon just months later to defeat Nate Diaz by way of majority decision. The pair of pay-per-views with Nate shattered previous UFC records, and the two received a massive payday because of it.
Shortly after the fight, UFC sold for over four-billion dollars in one of the largest transactions in sports history. Not even four months after that, McGregor made history when he became the only fighter to ever hold two championships at the same time inside the octagon.
Now, TIME Magazine has confirmed that Conor has made the cut for the annual “100 Most Influential People” list. Check out Conor’s reaction below:
Thank you @TIME magazine and @Schwarzenegger for including me in this years "TIME 100 Most influential people" list ? pic.twitter.com/bW9tsRoQHR
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 20, 2017
Do you think he should top the list?
