Now that it really appears Conor McGregor isn't facing Nate Diaz at UFC 200, it becomes an even crazier story in hindsight given the reasons for it falling through.
If one of them was injured, sure. If somebody made an outrageous money demand, sure. But the biggest money event in the sport's history falling apart because somebody refused to get on a plane to Las Vegas and attend a press conference and do a television commercial 11 weeks before the fight? It makes no sense. Yet, as best we can tell, that's what happened. And it makes little sense that people who are in the business of convincing guys to take fights couldn't somehow talk a fighting into coming in to promote a bout that he himself demanded. It's even crazier since McGregor has made it clear he wants on the show in the fight he requested.
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Since the fallout, though, McGregor has gone onto his Twitter account and made all sorts of claims, including one saying that without him, UFC 200 won't do 1.5 million buys. He also claimed that with him, UFC 200 would challenge the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao pay-per-view record, which ended up at about 4,650,000 buys.
"I had the May/Pac record primed ready to place MMA at the undisputed top. But it was not to be," he wrote on Twitter, in exchanges where he boasted to hold all kinds of company records.
When asked by one fan if he has overtaken Brock Lesnar as the biggest draw in MMA history -- which is a title he can rightfully claim -- he said, "It's not safe to say. It is a fact to say. I hold PPV, gate, TV, Fight Pass and Embedded record. Even title fight KO."
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While out of action, Cormier -- the victim to Jones in the most anticipated light heavyweight title match since Tito Ortiz vs Chuck Liddell some 17 months ago at UFC 182 -- beat the next best guy in the division, Anthony Johnson. He claimed the title. The rivalry between Jones and Cormier will draw big numbers.
Big in a 1.5 million buy way? That depends on the value of the name UFC 200, and the claimed $10 million advertising budget that Dana White has said UFC is earmarking for the show.
But even under the best of circumstances, whatever the true potential was for the event will not be reached.
LINK: UFC 200 will still be big, but we'll never know what the true potential was
