{"id":118556,"date":"2025-05-21T01:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T01:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/118556\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T01:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T01:48:12","slug":"conor-mcgregor-combat-sports-pioneer-similar-to-muhammad-ali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/118556\/","title":{"rendered":"Conor McGregor Combat Sports \u2018Pioneer\u2019 Similar to Muhammad Ali"},"content":{"rendered":"

No matter what the future may hold, Teddy Atlas believes Conor
\nMcGregor<\/a> is one of the most significant figures in combat
\nsports history.<\/p>\n

The boxing trainer and MMA analyst recently weighed in on
\nMcGregor\u2019s legacy in an interview with Slingo<\/a> .<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a guy that was a pioneer in making people money, a lot
\nlike Muhammad
\nAli<\/a>,\u201d Atlas said. \u201cWhen Ali, with boxing, started making more
\nmoney, he broke that barrier. In the
\nUFC<\/a>, people started making more money when Conor
\nMcGregor<\/a> came along and he broke that barrier, and people are
\nbenefitting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former UFC two-division champion hasn\u2019t fought since breaking
\nhis leg in a loss to Dustin
\nPoirier<\/a> in July 2021. After coaching on \u201cThe Ultimate Fighter
\n31,\u201d McGregor pulled out of a proposed booking against rival coach
\nMichael
\nChandler<\/a> at UFC 303 on the week of the fight.<\/p>\n

Since then, there hasn\u2019t been much discussion in regards to
\nMcGregor\u2019s return. After the Dublin native teased a comeback on
\nsocial media, UFC CEO Dana White
\nquickly dismissed the idea<\/a> . While the status of McGregor\u2019s
\ncombat sports career remains uncertain, Atlas believes the Irish
\nstar deserves the opportunity to make a comeback if and when he
\nchooses.<\/p>\n

\u201cConor
\nMcGregor<\/a> has earned the right to come back because he was a
\npioneer in the UFC. There’s not many pioneers out there,\u201d said
\nAtlas, When you’re a pioneer you deserve the right to call it a day
\nwhen you call it a day, you deserve the right to be given more
\nleeway than someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

When active, McGregor has been the UFC\u2019s biggest star. A former
\nCage Warriors champion, the \u201cNotorious\u201d enjoyed a rapid ascent in
\nthe promotion. He won his first seven fights in the Octagon,
\ncapturing featherweight gold with a 13-second knockout of Jose Aldo<\/a>. A
\nrivalry with Nate Diaz<\/a>
\nbecame one of the sport\u2019s biggest attractions, and in 2016 he
\nbecame a simulatenous two-division title holder when he stopped
\nEddie
\nAlvarez<\/a> at UFC 205.<\/p>\n

That opened the door for the SBG Ireland representative to secure a
\nmega payday in a boxing match with Floyd Mayeather Jr. in August
\n2017. McGregor\u2019s MMA career wasn\u2019t the same after that, as he\u2019s
\njust 1-3 in the UFC since 2018. However, his reputation and ability
\nto sell fights has allowed him to remain in the spotlight despite
\nnumerous issues outside the cage and a long span of inactivity.<\/p>\n

According to Atlas, other UFC athletes are continuing to reap the
\nrewards from what McGregor accomplished in his heyday.<\/p>\n

\u201cFighters are benefiting from it, and aside from that, he was maybe
\nthe greatest promoter we ever saw, one of the greatest promoters we
\never saw,\u201d Atlas said. \u201cBut he was a hell of a fighter.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No matter what the future may hold, Teddy Atlas believes Conor McGregor is one of the most significant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[3907,1935,53047,12,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-118556","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-boxing","10":"tag-https-www-sherdog-com-news-news-ufc","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114543309907896048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}