Conor McGregor wanted one important thing when he sat down with the media after his second victory of the world title, and almost a decade later he gives it to his hunters.
When the Irishman defeated Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title on UFC 205, his history performance was so much more groundbreaking than could have been expected. Within a few months, the UFC had sold $ 4 billion to WME-IMG, and his career as a top hunter never returned to those heights.
At the time, he demanded equity in the company, knowing that he was a huge player to get it about that monster rating. And he now puts his money where his mouth is and offers hunters the chance to possess part of his promotion; BKFC.
Conor McGregor offers part possession to BKFC champions
Looking at the huge and sometimes overflowing press conference of BKFC on Thursday evening, you could be forgiven that you have missed some of the many announcements by owners David Feldman and Conor McGregor.
From new signing sessions such as Yoel Romero and Derek Brunson to international shows in the UK and Rome, there was an apparently never -ending list of breaking news stories from the duo.
But perhaps the most impactful came when Feldman opened about an alternative to the promotion plan to implement a pension for hunters. He had announced the idea years ago for the first time, but admitted that it was a struggle to make it happen.
Instead, the alternative that he and McGregor came up with BKFC champions and long-term hunters to offer a piece of equity in the promotion itself. He appreciated the potential shares of ownership of some $ 100,000 to $ 3 million for the longest serving champions.
“Do you understand how incredible is that our fighters are rewarded that way?” Asked McGregor the collected crowd. “To really participate in this turnout, to be on the board with us when we get this ladder of combat sport.”
Conor McGregor argued for UFC's own assets after he helped the company up to $ 4 billion sales
In 2016, after his victory over Alvarez, the press conference after the fight in Madison Square Garden was full of questions about McGregor's future in the cage. He had just won two world titles in less than a year and had brought the sport back to New York City, where it was forbidden for so many years.
“They have to come and talk to me now because no one has come to talk since the sale happened,” he told the media at the time. “As a businessman I was approached as a 'hello' and things like that, but I have earned something.
Photo by Brandon Magnus/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
“Who owns the company now? People have shares in the company, celebrities. Conan O'Brien now owns the UFC, so where is my share? Where is my equity? If I am the one who brings this, they must come and talk to me now.
“I have both belts, a piece of money, a small family on the road. You want me to stay hanging, you want me to keep doing what I do? Let's talk, but I want ownership now, I want share immediately, I want what I earn, what I have earned.”
It is clear that the fact that such an offer has never come, McGregor still finds a lot to this day. He touched it briefly during the press conference and noticed that he felt that he got 'nothing' from the UFC, despite his several eight figures of payments and mass celebrity status.
“For me I fought my heart and soul and gave everything to the rise of a company and I got nothing for it,” he said. “Now we are here, our company, my company, we give something back to the hunters who are bleeding for us. So welcome to the table of the owners, our world champions and our British champions, we are in here forever.”