Conor McGregor has been called a lot of things but we're pretty sure this is the first time we've heard anyone say he's like Tiger Woods.
Booker T, the five time five time five time WCW champion, was a guest on Stone Cold Steve Austin's podcast this week and during a discussion about pay scales in the UFC, he drew comparison between McGregor and the 14 time major winner.
Austin brought up the topic of McGregor, citing him as a catalyst for UFC fighters' struggle to get better paid for their fights:
When he first started coming on the scene, you know, he has that aura about him; that chemistry; that it and that x-factor. He's talking all that trash and he's backing it up, and he's just a supreme showman. Then, incredibly, he has the boxing match with Mayweather and he rakes it in on that.
He's a guy - to me - that everybody has looked to, especially the Diaz brothers, thinking 'Hey man, if you're paying this son of a bitch all this money then where's mine?' So I think he has made a huge case for guys getting paid more money or bucking the system.
He pointed to the current UFC Heavyweight champion as another example: "It seems to me that's what a lot more fighters are doing [demanding more money]. They're being very selective about their opponents, like a friend of mine, Daniel Cormier, wanting that fight with Brock Lesnar because he knows that's going to be the biggest payday of his life."
McGregor's pulling power is, of course, unrivalled and Booker T puts it down to his business acumen and the fanbase he has in Ireland:
Conor McGregor came in there and he proved his worth, he proved how good he was and he proved that he was marketable. He proved that he was bankable as well.
Conor has got a country behind him, he's got a whole sea of people that are going to follow him as well and that's what made Conor a little bit different. Conor was willing to bank on himself and say 'Whatever the UFC say, screw them. I'm going to have this boxing match....' He got so big that they [UFC] couldn't say anything because they wanted him because when you're drawing money people are going to want you no matter what.
He then likened McGregor's current situation to when Tiger Woods was in his pomp: "It's almost like Tiger Woods back in the day. They used to pay Tiger a million just to show up at tournaments. With Conor he's gotten it to the point now where 'If you want me to show up, pay me to show up!' A lot of fighters can take notes from what he's doing."
The Notorious will be lining his coffers even further when he faces Khabib Nurmagomedov on 7 October but if you ask me, they could actually do with taking a leaf out of Booker T and Stone Cold's book and hold the fight in a supermarket
You can listen the guys dicussing McGregor from about 1 hour 11 mins in below:
