Conor McGregor now makes the rules in UFC ... and everyone else follows


After McGregor’s triumph in UFC 205, the organization’s new owners may as well give the Irishman a cut of the money. He’s doing whatever he wants now anyway

Conor McGregor may act like an unrepentant lout at times. He may taunt, scorn and torment his opponents, the way he played with Eddie Alvarez before finishing him off early Sunday morning. He may drive you nuts. But he has turned the UFC into his own little game, in which he makes the rules and picks the prizes. At some point you have to shake your head and marvel.

Well after midnight on Sunday morning, UFC president Dana White glowed as he sat at a table beneath the stands and said UFC 205 took in a gate of $17.7m – a record for Madison Square Garden. And while the windfall was a result of perhaps the greatest fight card ever assembled, with three title match-ups in a single event, the reality of the money is that it was there because of McGregor. Without him the first UFC’s first New York City event would have been a good night of fighting but nothing transcendent.

Related: Conor McGregor KOs Eddie Alvarez to become UFC's first two-class champion

OHHHHHHHHH the #CelticCross lands and drops Alvarez!!! #UFC205 #UFCNYC https://t.co/L43rTtgAOd

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