The UFC have handled the Conor McGregor saga perfectly

The UFC has done a brilliant job handling the Conor McGregor situation. Dana White has said that Conor will be headlining either the UFC 201, 202 or 203 cards and is not going to feature on the UFC 205 card in New York.

I like this move because if Conor were to lose to Nate Diaz again it would protect the UFC from promoting their debut New York event with the headline act losing his last two fights.

Much has been made of how the UFC will be losing $45 million by pulling Conor off the UFC 200 card. Overall this will not be the case. When Conor fights on the UFC 201 card that $45 million will added to the bottom line of that card, so really the UFC will only be waiting around a month longer to get it’s pot of gold from the Irishman.

From a business perspective moving Conor off the UFC 200 and 205 cards is a great move. It spreads the star power over more UFC PPV events and it sends Conor a very clear message of who runs the show. UFC 200 and UFC 205 have a lot of hype regardless of who is on the card because they will be landmark events.

UFC 200 marks a special milestone in the company’s history and UFC 205 will mark another milestone in the sport of MMA because it will be the first sanctioned MMA event in New York.

UFC 200 and 205 will do good PPV numbers even without Conor on the card and whichever event Conor headlines next will do massive numbers. If the UFC were to put Conor in UFC 200 and 205 then the other PPV events after those cards will not do nearly as well.

It serves the UFC’s bottom line better if Conor were to headline these ‘weaker’ cards because the UFC 200 and 205 events will make money regardless of who fights just for the reason that they will be milestone events in MMA.