Yahoo Sports Conor McGregor Poised to Shatter UFC Attendance Record if He Gets Past Aldo
As Conor McGregor celebrated after his TKO win over Chad Mendes at UFC 189, former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar approached the Octagon and respectfully asked for a fight with the newly crowned interim featherweight titleholder.
McGregor faces champion Jose Aldo on Dec. 12 in the UFC 194 main event in a title unification bout. He has indicated that if he defeats Aldo, he’d like to take on Edgar before moving up to the lightweight division.
“If he beats Jose Aldo, he told me he would also like to fight Frankie. We'll see how this thing plays out,” UFC president Dana White recently said on Fox Sports Live.
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With women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm poised to set the attendance record at UFC 193 on Nov. 15 at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia, the record may not last long. If McGregor is victorious at UFC 194, his first title defense will be at Croke Park in his hometown of Dublin. The stadium holds nearly 90,000 spectators. UFC 129 currently holds the attendance record with 55,724 fans packing the Rogers Centre in Toronto in April 2011 to witness former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre defeat Jake Shields.
“If he beats Jose Aldo in Las Vegas in December, the next fight will be in Croke Park. We told him he could defend his title at Croke Park,” said White.
McGregor has been talking about selling out a stadium event in Ireland for nearly a year. At first, the Las Vegas-based fight promotion was hesitant about holding an event at the outdoor stadium.
“There’s a lot of obstacles for Croke Park: the time, they have a curfew at night where you can’t get permits to stay out that late, you lose about 25 to 30 percent on pay-per-view being in another country, the amount of money in production for Croke Park. I can guarantee you it’s gonna rain. I’m not a meteorologist, but I’ll bet you it’s gonna rain,”said White at the UFC Fight Night 59 post-fight press conference in January.
The weather wasn’t the only concern for White. To host an event in a venue that size dramatically increases production costs.
“So, with 91,000 people there, you actually do a bigger gate in Vegas, probably two million dollars more,” said White. “Because when you’re in a stadium that big, the production costs (go up).
“We’ve got to put up big screens. We definitely got to build something to put over the Octagon because it will rain. There’s a lot of things that you have to do in an arena like that.”
Before a match-up between McGregor and Edgar can come to fruition, a couple of things have to happen first. McGregor has to beat Aldo, who hasn't tasted defeat in a decade, and Edgar has to get past Mendes at The Ultimate Fighter 22 Finale on Dec. 11, although McGregor fighting in Croke Park isn't contingent upon Edgar winning.
If he unifies the featherweight titles in December, his first title defense will be at the outdoor stadium in Dublin.
