It was an exciting Thursday last week when fight fans received highly-anticipated news about UFC 197. Bleacher Report lead writer, Jeremy Botter, tweeted a viral message saying,
“BREAKING: Multiple sources confirm UFC will soon announce UFC 197 for March 5 in Vegas with Dos Anjos/McGregor and Holm/Tate.”
The Internet rejoiced at the thought of UFC 197 turning into another “super card”, much like UFC 194 and UFC 189 were where two titles were on the line. Conor McGregor would be moving up to the lightweight division to challenge for the belt – potentially becoming the featherweight AND lightweight champion of the world. The other piece of good news was that Holly Holm would not be waiting until UFC 200 to fight, and would defend her newly crowned belt against Miesha Tate (and not hold out for the Ronda Rousey rematch).
But some confusion took place when this article on Globo was published saying that Conor McGregor was delaying the announcement of the bout by demanding more money. While this narrative didn’t sound too out-of-the-picture for the UFC superstar, it put a lot of skepticism into the minds of fight fans as to whether or not this fight would be made. I think overall, fight fans just want to see Conor McGregor fight as much as possible rather than resorting to fighting twice a year simply for the big money fights.
Opinion aside, a stream of tweets emerged from Conor McGregor affiliates citing it was not him who was delaying the announcement of the inevitable Conor McGregor vs. Rafael dos Anjos match up at UFC 197. MMAJunkie reporter, Steven Marrocco, cited McGregor’s manager Audie Attar in a tweet denying the accusation. Furthermore, McGregor’s head coach, John Kavanagh, also mentioned that Conor McGregor is ready to fight at UFC 197.
So it appears Conor McGregor is NOT the one holding up the announcement of UFC 197. So what is the deal? Perhaps McGregor’s scheduled opponent, Rafael dos Anjos, is the one actually the one delaying the bout? This was a thought shared by many on social media until respected MMA reporter Ariel Helwani debunked this as well with his tweet sent out January 11th. Helwani mentioned that “all parties involved [are] on board.”
If Conor McGregor isn’t the one holding up the fight, and Rafael dos Anjos is ready to sign on the dotted line – what is the hold up? Could this be a PR stunt by the UFC to simply generate more buzz and hype around the event (as if Conor McGregor and Holly Holm wouldn’t be enough for UFC 197 to reach a million PPV buys and above)?
In my opinion, I think it could have something to do with the location of the event. UFC 197 was originally meant to be held in Brazil. After a rumor came out about the event moving due to the economic crisis currently going on in Brazil, UFC 197 was believed to be held in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand. If I had to take a guess, I would say that the UFC is delaying the announcement of UFC 197 because they’re looking for a different venue rather than the MGM Grand (which is where Conor has fought the last 2 times). Perhaps the UFC is trying to work out the inevitable Croke Park event in front of 80,000 screaming Irish fans? We can only hope.
