Conor McGregor‘s life is in shambles, considering how the past few days have unraveled. After all, losing the civil suit against Nikita Hand has been a massive blow to his reputation. While the financial settlement, which amounts to around a quarter of a million dollars is a paltry sum for the wealthiest mixed martial artist in the history of the world, it has made him persona non grata in many quarters. To the point that he has started to bleed sponsors and brand endorsement deals.

But the question on everyone’s mind is- what about his UFC career? Are things still on track as they were before, or has the lawsuit changed things between him and the promotion? Well, no one knows for sure at the moment. But veteran sports reporter, Dave Meltzer has a theory.

“Dana has to make that call. He’s said nothing about it. My gut is he’ll be like every promoter was whether it was for Tyson or Floyd and that their drawing power is too big. And as I noted in the story, if Dana won’t use him, every boxing & MMA promoter will do everything they can to get him to fight for their company,” Meltzer tweeted in reply to a fan asking if ‘Mac’ will be canceled for good.

And this does seem to be the near consensus in the MMA world. After all, ‘Mac’ remains a huge draw as he proved yet again earlier this year. After all, UFC 303, where he was scheduled to fight Michael Chandler after three years of inactivity, quickly rose to the upper echelon of the highest-grossing gate events in UFC history to date. Even if one were to say that ‘Mac’s popularity has gone down by fifty percent, McGregor remains more popular and more of a draw than almost every other fighter in the promotion.

In addition, McGregor is appealing the decision, which gives Dana White and co. a perhaps flimsy excuse, but a justification nonetheless that his civil case is yet to reach its conclusion. Not to mention the UFC welcomes and celebrates President-elect Donald Trump who lost a civil lawsuit to E. Jean Carroll earlier this year. While he may not feel the fallout of the civil suit as far as the UFC is concerned, this is not the case for other brands.

Which brands have dropped Conor McGregor after the Nikita Hand lawsuit?

So far, two major brands have dropped Conor McGregor. One of them is the video game developer, IO Interactive, which plans to remove all content related to ‘Mac’ from its global smash-hit game, ‘Hitman World of Assassination’. In fact, the video game company was the first to drop the Irishman following the civil suit verdict.

But what really would have hurt the former UFC champion was the whiskey brand, ‘Proper No. 12’ cutting all ties with him. This brand, of course, was McGregor’s baby, which he not only co-founded, but also made a global brand off of his promotional and marketing brilliance. He famously sold majority stakes in ‘Proper No. 12’ to Proximo Spirits group three years ago, which reportedly made him a low nine-figure payday.

Howeber, the brand has publicly announced that it would no longer be using McGregor name or likeness to market the whiskey brand. In addition, a few supermarket chains, such as Tesco, Mace, Centra, and SuperValu have vowed not to sell products associated with McGregor. To be fair, the bombastic and politically incorrect McGregor was never a very sponsor-friendly fighter and never had the number or caliber of sponsors that would be expected of an athlete of ‘Mac’s level. But the few that he did have are seemingly abandoning ship, and more may follow suit. What do you think about Dave Meltzer’s prediction for how Conor McGregor will be treated by the UFC?

The post “If Dana Won’t Use Him” – As Trouble Mounts for Conor McGregor, Dana White’s Biggest Dilemma on Plans for the Irishman’s UFC Return Revealed appeared first on EssentiallySports.



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