Ronda Rousey - defeated. Paige VanZant - defeated. Sage Northcutt - defeated. And now, with Conor McGregor's loss to Nate Diaz, an awful lot of people are enjoying the fact that Dana White's supposed inner circle of artificially hyped fighters have been eaten up by the chasing pack.
That GIF of White and his superstars being tossed on around on a speedboat has been doing the rounds for a couple of months but it's really had a renaissance with McGregor's defeat this week. It may be tough to take for McGregor's fans to take but it's easy to see why his defeat has been met with a healthy dose of schadenfreude.
There's no doubt that White and the UFC's top brass helped pumped some hot air into the above mentioned fighters over the past year or so. It makes good business sense to hype the most marketable fighters so that's exactly what was done but that obviously doesn't stop opponents from taking the kind of scalp that can make a career. White may not be delighted to see his golden eggs crack open once after another but, in reality, the unpredictability has only added to what White and co. are selling. As such, it's easy to see why he's not jumping off the McGregor ship at the first opportunity.
The headline superfight at UFC 200 may not happen now but in the long term, McGregor's loss shouldn't necessarily harm his earning potential. The greats bounce back and according to White, McGregor's status as a great can only be increased by what he did at the weekend.
White spoke to ESPN radio this week and he raised the example of Georges St-Pierre as someone who, although considered one of the true greats of the sport, would not do what McGregor did against Diaz and move up in weight class so freely.
That's the thing -- nobody wants to do it. GSP would never move up to 185 to fight Anderson Silva. He wouldn't do it.
You know how many times we wanted to do the GSP-Anderson Silva fight? GSP would not do it. Would not do it. Guys don't do that stuff. That's what makes Conor McGregor so unique, so fascinating and so fun. For GSP he was moving up one weight class. Conor McGregor jumped up two weight classes.
Now it must be said that quite a few fans would take exception to the suggestion of a double weight jump. While plenty have lauded McGregor for that, an equal number have stated that in reality, it was a jump up to a lightweight fight without having to go through the bother of a weight-cut.
However, there's no doubt that the increase in weight affected McGregor more so than it did Diaz. He looked sluggish and unable to effectively deal with the extra mass so perhaps that argument has no real merit. Either way, White is certainly not buying into it and he's not forgetting about the Dubliner anytime soon.
As for how the featherweight champ has reacted to the defeat, White had some good news for anyone who's looking forward to seeing McGregor bounce back as soon as possible.
I was at his house last night talking to him. He wants to fight again as soon as possible. He wants to jump back in there and he wants to fight again. We're working on who the next opponent will be.
In other words, Aldo and Edgar, you better start putting in your pitches for that big money bout.
