Daniel Cormier praises “greatest promoter of all time” Conor McGregor

On August 26, UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor will take his first steps into the professional boxing arena opposite undefeated defensive specialist and possible GOAT Floyd Mayweather Jr. It’s a fight that initially seemed almost impossible, but one that ultimately came to fruition. In the opinion of UFC light heavyweight champion and Fox Sports analyst Daniel Cormier, that fact can be largely attributed to McGregor’s gift for promotion.

“Floyd had to listen for this to happen,” Cormier recently told Fight Hype (h/t BloodyElbow). “Floyd had to take notice. How did Conor McGregor, a mixed martial arts guy – he has no boxing experience – get the attention of the pound-for-pound number one fighter in the world, and maybe the best boxer of all-time? How did he do that?”

“That’s why I say he’s the greatest promoter of all-time,” Cormier continued. “This guy, he managed to get Floyd Mayweather to fight him. There are boxers in the world right now that are much more deserving of that mega-fight, in terms of credentials, but they could never get Floyd’s attention to make Floyd listen. Conor did that.”

Needless to say, with two proven pay-per-view stars in McGregor and Mayweather at the helm, Cormier expects this card to be a massive financial success.

“Manny was a big pay-per-view draw, but his pay-per-views weren’t consistently a million, 1.3 million, 1.5 million buys. That’s Conor McGregor all day.”

“Floyd’s always been the guy to have to carry the promotion every time he fought. And this time, I know he won’t because he knows that if he does his part, (and) Conor does his part, but if he wanted to, he could take a backseat. He doesn’t have to do it. He could sit back and let Conor do it, and they would still do massive numbers.”

Do you agree with Daniel Cormier’s comments on Conor McGregor?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/27/2017.