Conor McGregor believes Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship is a better place for former Ultimate Fighting Championship athletes than any other mixed martial arts promotion.
McGregor Sports and Entertainment became a co-owner of BKFC earlier this year, and in explaining his interest in the organization, McGregor said he sees the MMA promotion field as kind of saturated with UFC established as the clear industry leader.
According to McGregor, BKFC is a completely different space that attracts more attention than the UFC’s rival MMA organization. McGregor pointed out that former UFC fighters who fight in rival MMA organizations often don’t get much attention. In comparison, “Notorious” finds his BKFC matches, which feature former UFC fighters like Mike Perry and Eddie Alvarez, much more entertaining.
“We have the UFC as the premier mixed martial arts organization, but the rest of the organizations are just not right, let’s be real. The best events of the rest are probably between fighters from the UFC’s past. A fight, maybe against someone at an intermediate level. Judging by the numbers, it’s not going to create a huge buzz for me or for the fans,” McGregor recently told The MacLife. “Take Justin Gaethje, a UFC veteran and former BMF holder…an interim belt.”
[holder]”Let’s take him and make it bare-knuckle, that’s exciting. That’s really, really exciting. Now let’s take him and put him in another MMA organization, not so much.”
McGregor also assured that the UFC was very happy about the partnership with BKFC, as it immediately eliminated any possible element of competition.
“It’s not. It actually blends in well with UFC. I’m very happy with it,” he said. “And I believe that it’s music to the ears of the Ultimate Fighting Championship that I’m a part of this. It just eliminates the competition. It popped the UFC competition like a balloon, and it’s deflated like a balloon that’s been popped.”
Although they only recently partnered, McGregor has been dabbling with BKFC for some time. The former two-time UFC champion attended last year’s event and faced off against BKFC superstar Perry. McGregor’s Forged Irish Stout and Proper 12 Whiskey were also sponsors of his BKFC card in which the partnership was announced. The Irishman revealed that the biggest draw for him was the promotion’s matchmaking, and credited the company’s president, Dave Feldman, for that.
“What got me into Bare Knuckle was matchmaking. Matchmaking from [Dave] Feldman was great,” McGregor said. “Really, really great matchmaking. At that event alone, Luke Rockhold and Mike Perry, [Eddie] with alvarez [Chad] Mendes, great matchmaking. This led to Perry and MVP and some great matches. ”
McGregor will make his return after three years in the main event of UFC 303 on June 29 against Michael Chandler (23-8).
