After his annihilation of Jose Aldo, it's been a fairly good week for Conor McGregor. He's getting a civic reception from the city of Dublin after all. And while that will no doubt go down well with a man who is proud of where he comes from, it's not quite on par with the main benefit of becoming the biggest star in MMA.
Lorenzo Fertitta, the co-owner of the UFC's parent company Zuffa, this week claimed that McGregor would be the promotion's 'first $100 millionaire'. As we all know, it's all about the bottom line for the featherweight champ. The necessity to be the best is motivation in itself but he's never been shy of stating his belief that it all comes down to money at the end of the day.
And while that may be all well and good, there have been suggestions in the past few days that McGregor's business acumen may be putting him on a crash course with the UFC's money men.
While Lorenzo Fertitta may have been happy to proclaim McGregor as the cash king of MMA, the initial reaction of his brother and business partner, Frank Fertitta, to the 13 second KO would indicate something rather different.
McGregor has been open with his belief that he's in line for a 'nine figure' contract in the near future. That would blow the promotion's current pay structure wide open and there's no doubt that, although the UFC may love his ability to bring in the cash, his public assertions of a new contract would be less than ideal for a company that certainly likes to keep control when it comes to their expenditure.
See also: UFC Fighters Really Are Getting Screwed When It Comes To Their Contracts
Quite a few fighters have opened up about the belief that fighter's pay is not what it should be and McGregor doing so may be less than ideal for the Fertitta's. Which is why a lot of people are reading quite a bit into this extreme reaction from 'Uncle Frank' at the moment of McGregor's victory last weekend. (top of the picture between M and G)
@rmchairanalyst @Punchy_Primate @FrontRowBrian recorded this off my TV. Look at Frank in background with the belt pic.twitter.com/qPAE08xmJk
— Anthony Creasey (@anthonycreasey) December 13, 2015
There's no doubt that's the top brass slamming the title belt on the ground after McGregor's KO victory. What it means is open to debate however. Perhaps he was just like the rest of us and was so excited that he needed to throw something and he just happened to be holding the belt. That's possible but it doesn't seem overly likely.
It must be said there have been pictures doing the rounds of Fertitta smiling during McGregor's post fight celebrations but even then there's a significant difference between a knee jerk reaction and knowing when you have to put on a business face for the cameras.
We'll let the footage do the talking but the rumours that McGregor's possible $100 million contract is causing friction at the top of the organisation would certainly seem to make Fertitta's reaction an awful lot more interesting.
