During his recent appearance on Submission Radio, former UFC title contender and current ESPN analyst Chael Sonnen explained why Conor McGregor’s loss against Nate Diaz at UFC 196 may not necessarily ruin his ability to draw a high-level of viewers when he fights again in the future.
According to Sonnen, McGregor’s “aura of invincibility” might have been affected by the loss to Diaz, but his drawing power probably was not.
“Being invincible isn’t a tremendous drawing point, good competition is, somebody that’s exciting. So he’s going to do fine, but to say that he’s not going to take a dip, yeah I think he’ll take a little bit of a dip. But even with a dip he’ll still be the biggest star the company’s got right now.”
Sonnen also claimed that McGregor was already the biggest star in the UFC and proved that he was a bigger draw than Ronda Rousey.
“He’s always been, he’s always been. That’s never been true [that Ronda was a bigger star]. She’s a good friend, I don’t mean this negative, not even a tiny bit, but that’s never been true. I never understood why they have constantly said it. God bless them, it’s just simply not true. But Conor holds the gate records and he holds the pay-per-view records and she hasn’t touched him. And that’s the truth, regardless of what you might read in the media.”
