White: Conor McGregor is completely underrated
UFC president Dana White appeared recently on the UFC Unfiltered podcast and pointed out a curious contradiction.
Conor McGregor is the highest paid active athlete in combat sports. He is the first fighter to hold two UFC belts at once. And he’s the underdog going into the fight vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 on October 6 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Nurmagomedov is a perfect 26-0, and has never even lost a round that anyone can recall. And McGregor has struggled vs. ground specialists like Chad Mendes and of course Nate Diaz. However, Nurmagomedov gets hit with some regularity; in his last ten fights, ‘The Eagle’ has only stopped two in the first two rounds.
UFC president Dana White appeared recently on the UFC Unfiltered podcast and pointed out a curious contradiction.
It’s funny to say this because of how popular he is and what a huge star he is, but I think Conor McGregor is one of the most underrated fighters in the UFC, said White, as transcribed by Trent Reinsmith for Forbes. Every time Conor McGregor comes out to fight somebody new and it’s a wrestler, or it’s whatever, this is the fight that Conor’s gonna lose.
When Chad Mendes, leading up to the fight where he fought Chad Mendes, you know, everybody thought Chad Mendes was a wrestler, everybody believed he would do that. And then after he won everyone said that Chad Mendes didn’t have enough time to train for it.
He said he would knock out Jose Aldo the way he did it. He said he would do it in the first round.
A lot of people picked him to lose against Eddie Alvarez because of Alvarez’s style and wrestling and look how he looked there. I think because Conor is so popular and his personality and everything, I think he’s completely underrated.