White: Conor McGregor is bigger than GSP or Brock Lesnar

The top grossing actor in the world in 2013 was The Rock. Next were highly respected actors Robert Downey, Jr. and Steve Carell. #4 was Vin Diesel. In short, the biggest movie stars in the world are not necessarily the greatest actors.

There is a parallel in mixed martial arts, where the biggest PPV draws are not always the best fighters. The top grossing fighter in the league was once Brock Lesnar, whose record speaks for itself. The other fighter frequently cited as biggest draw was former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, whose skills are among the very best ever seen in the cage.

In acting, a lack of acting skill does not seem to unduly burden some stars – Chuck Norris has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and starred in several dozen movies. But in fighting, if your skills aren’t equivalent to your popularity, eventually someone beats your ass bad.

Gina Carano had the rare “it” factor as she is proving in the movies, but she was beaten out of MMA by Cris Cyborg. So too with Brock Lesnar, who won the UFC heavyweight championship, but was beaten out of MMA by Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem. Overeem would go on to lose three of the next four.

Everyone knew that UFC featherweight contender Conor McGregor had that “it” factor, but many questioned whether he had the skills to back it up in the long run. His first round crushing of Dustin Poirier on Saturday firmly answered any question about whether McGregor’s skills were world class.

So how big a star is he?

Appearing on FOX Sports 1’s post-UFC 178 show, UFC president Dana White was asked whether Conor McGregor was a biggest star than GSP.

Conor McGregor is the real deal, he is legit,” said White as transcribed by Mike Bohn. “He is a force that I have never seen ever. Bigger than Brock Lesnar when he was here. Bigger than any of the fighters we’ve ever had. Yes, (he’s bigger than Georges St-Pierre). I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Let’s just say we’re way over budget. The numbers, we attributed it to Conor.”

White expanded on the remarks in a post fight interview with Megan Ogilvi.

White was asked to comment on the remarkable rise in McGregor’s star power, noting he may be the fastest rising star in the organization.

“Absolutely, in the history of it,” said White. “In other sports, too. You don’t see something like this. You don’t see somebody burst on to the scene and have such a massive impact before he was even ranked in the top ten.”

“Dustin Poirier is awesome, and he’s one of the best in the world. And I was saying before the fight, “Why would Conor McGregor say, ‘I’m going to finish the No. 5 guy in the world in the first round.’ He’s setting himself up for failure.” Well, goes to show you what I know.

“What we saw tonight was that Conor McGregor is for real, he’s legit and holy s—. Wow.”