The Final Twist of the Knife

The Final Twist of the Knife

Thousands of Jews praying at the the holiest site in Judaism, the Western Wall, which president Obama just deemed to be illegally occupied. 

Friday at the United Nations, with no election to campaign for, Barack Obama was free to show his true colors.  On the same day he was lighting a menorah at the White House in his last act of false friendship with the Jewish people, he was simultaneously attempting to destroy the Jewish state.  By not vetoing a UN Security Council resolution that shamefully condemned Israel and decreed Jewish presence in East Jerusalem (including the Western Wall, the Temple Mount, and the Jewish Quarter of the Old City) to be illegal, Mr. Obama took his revenge against Benjamin Netanyahu for not bowing before Obama’s cult of personality. 

The resolution took the position that the holiest places in Judaism should be under Palestinian sovereignty, and that Jews have no claim to the area.  The Western Wall refers to a part of King Herod’s Temple, the only wall still standing after the Romans destroyed the temple, sacked Jerusalem, killed hundreds of thousands of Jews, and exiled the survivors in 70 BCE.  For almost 2000 years, between the Roman destruction of the temple and the Six Day War in 1967, Jews have been actively trying to take back dominion over their homeland, which president Obama has now shamefully stated is not Jewish at all. 

Liberation of the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967 by Israeli paratroopers.

Pre-1948 History

Due in large part to the World War I efforts made by the brilliant British Jewish scientist Chaim Weizmann, and the bravery shown by Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky and his Zion Mule Corps (who fought alongside the British in WWI), Britain supported a Jewish national home in the land then called Palestine.  The term Palestine generally referred to the area between southern Syria and Egypt, and was popularized by the Romans as a way of disconnecting the land (in Hebrew called Judea) from the Jews after successive Jewish revolts.  Before the victory of Britain, the U.S., and France in WWI, the land of Palestine had been part of the Ottoman Empire; it was most certainly not an independent nation.  

After WWI, the British established the British Mandate of Palestine, which was to serve as the national homeland for the Jewish people.  However, being British, and thus generally anti-Semitic and untrustworthy (read about the White Paper and how the British refused to let hundreds of thousands of Jews escaping the Holocaust land in Palestine so as to not offend the Arabs), the offer of the British Mandate of Palestine was shrunken, with a new Arab state to be carved out.  The Jews, desperate for a homeland after 6 million were murdered, accepted even this smaller Jewish state, while the Arabs, of course, turned it down.  When the UN formally recognized Israel, the Arab states surrounding Israel attacked simultaneously, in hopes of finishing the genocide that Hitler started.  It is no coincidence that the leader of the Arabs of Palestine at the time, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, spent the World War II years in Germany asking Hitler to bring the Final Solution to the Arab world. 

The leader of the Arabs of Jerusalem asked Hitler to expand his genocide against the Jews, this time in Arab lands.

The Jews were not the only group to whom Britain owed a favor in the aftermath of WWI.   The Bedouins of Hejaz (an area in present-day Saudi Arabia), led by Emir Abdullah, also helped the British defeat the Ottomans.  As a reward, Winston Churchill created a state called Transjordan on the east bank of the Jordan River.  Transjordan bordered the British Mandate of Palestine, which was supposed to be the Jewish state.  During the Israeli War of Independence, the Jordanians occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which were previously under international control. 

Post-1948 History

The peace terms between Jordan and Israel at the conclusion of the War of Independence constitute what are commonly called the “pre-1967 borders”, which is a reference to the 1949 armistice lines between Israel and Jordan.  A Palestinian state is not referenced anywhere in the armistice agreement, mostly because no such thing existed.  Friday’s UN resolution speaks of the territory that Israel occupied in 1967, as if it were part of a Palestinian country, and not territory that Jordan had illegally occupied.  In effect, the resolution says that Israel must give back territory which it won in a defensive war, from a country that was occupying the land illegally, to a country that never before existed.  Unreal.

Jordanian troops forced Jews to flee the Old City of Jerusalem in 1948 when Jordan occupied the city.

After the Israeli War of Independence, Jordan occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and remained in control until the liberation of Jerusalem in 1967.  In the 1948 war, Jordan expelled all the Jews from East Jerusalem, destroyed 34 of 35 synagogues in the Old City of Jerusalem, desecrated Jewish graves, and did not allow Jews to pray at the Wall.  This is the situation that president Obama’s vote clearly supports.  His non-veto is nothing less than a blanket denial of the right of Jews to have dominion over their homeland, and support for ethnic cleansing of Jews.    

What the Resolution Means

If one were to discuss Israel and Palestine with a college student, he or she would know literally nothing about the history other than “Israel is bad!”  It is probable that the aforementioned safe-space dweller would not know that Jews in Israel in the 20^th century were called Palestinians (and the territory of Palestine had a Jewish star on its flag before the State of Israel was reborn), would not know of the occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank by the Jordanians from 1948-1967, certainly would not know about the almost 1,000,000 Jews whom the Arab countries expelled, would not know of the 3000 year continuous presence of Jews in Jerusalem, despite multiple expulsions, and would not know that there was never, in recorded history, a Palestinian state.  

Another Jew illegally in Jerusalem and the West Bank

By the terms of this resolution, Jesus was an illegal settler, as was any other Jew who built a house in Samaria or the eastern part of Jerusalem.  I expect this kind of ridiculous anti-Semitism from the fanatics and dictators of the Islamic world, the nonaligned countries in need of oil, and from the European appeasers who think that being anti-Israel will keep the jihadists from killing scores of European civilians.  Of America, however, I have higher standards.  I believe that the American people share my disgust with Obama’s attempt to turn our country into a poor imitation of a European nation; during his eight years in office, the Democratic party has lost 12 governorships, 9 Senate seats, 62 seats in the House, and more than 900 local legislative seats. 

Mr. Obama is attempting to sever the 3000-year-old link between Jews and Jerusalem; he is in effect doing the bidding of the fanatical Gulf States, both Iran and the Arab ones.  This resolution was everything that Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaida, the Saudis, and the Islamic Republic of Iran have ever wanted.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry alerted the Palestinian delegation ahead of time of their willingness to abstain on the resolution, in effect colluding to screw Israel.  While it is hard to know exactly what the damage will be from this resolution, the relationships between the US, the UN, and Israel will be forever changed by this treachery. 

Liberal American Jews have been living in a cocoon of naiveté for decades; they are so comfortable here that they have forgotten that America is constantly changing, and is not immune to anti-Semitism.  America’s changing demographics, the radicalization of campuses, the banishment of conservative professors off of college campuses, the unchallenged racial prism that dominates American political discourse, the sky-high intermarriage rates among American Jews, and Israel’s continuing decision to both accept billions in American military aid and build settlements in the West Bank have led us to this point.  If American Jews don’t wake up now, they never will. 

APEX

Conor McGregor seems like a bit of a dick, generally speaking.  From threatening to rest his balls on Chad Mendes’ face, to suggesting that in a different time and place, he would have ridden into Jose Aldo’s favela and killed everyone not fit to work, at times McGregor comes across as a bully.  Yet, I can’t help but cheer for him, as his unquenchable thirst to take on the whole world is inspirational, original, and at times hilarious. 

Conor cannot yet be called the best fighter in mixed martial arts (“MMA”) history, but he is unquestionably the most important fighter in the sport’s history post-Royce Gracie (Gracie won the first two UFC tournaments against much larger men, propelling jiu-jitsu and MMA into the national consciousness).  While Royce is responsible for creating initial interest in the UFC, Conor is responsible for taking the sport and the promotion to new heights.  To arrive at the peak upon which he currently sits, the Irish knockout artist had to overcome a number of foes, both inside and outside the cage.

Conor vs. Boxing

Before Conor McGregor’s ascension, boxing was, in a very unscientific way, still the premiere combat sport in America.  Sure, if you combined all of the UFC pay per views over the course of a year and compared that number with the number of boxing pay per views over the same time period, the UFC number would be higher.  However, boxing still had the biggest stars, and the biggest events.  Other than the most hardcore MMA fans, nobody remembers where they were when Mirko Cro Cop knocked out Wanderlei Silva with a head kick or how they felt when Fedor decimated Nogueira for the first time.  By contrast, boxing’s biggest stars captured the public’s attention when they fought; the events were spectacles that appealed to the masses, not merely the hardcore fans.  Fighters like Tyson, Mayweather, Pacquiao, and De La Hoya were able to sell out massive arenas and draw enormous pay per view buy rates on the strength of their names alone.  Part of this disparity in star wattage was because boxing had history and HBO on its side, while the UFC countered with Spike TV and no history.  Another part of the incongruence in star power, however, was intentional: the UFC business model was created (in part) to limit the appeal and leverage of individual fighters, and instead to promote the brand, first and foremost. 

The previous generation of MMA megastars (Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, BJ Penn, Matt Hughes, Tito Ortiz) all lacked a necessary ingredient to break through the glass ceiling into mainstream acceptance that a handful of boxers had managed to shatter.  Liddell could barely string 3 sentences together without falling asleep, and looked more like a bar fighter than a world class pugilist; Couture’s fighting style was too boring; Anderson couldn’t speak English; BJ Penn didn’t seem particularly interested; Matt Hughes was too country; GSP was too nice; and Tito Ortiz, the first UFC fighter to truly leverage his personal brand, simply wasn’t good enough at fighting. 

Conor McGregor suffers from none of those shortcomings.  His combination of looks, quick-witted and brash trash talk, brutal honesty, athleticism, punching power, and violent, explosive, and seemingly relaxed fighting style has made him a unique and irresistible force of nature.  Even the boxing world has been forced to stop and take note; for the first time, the most famous fighter in the world fights in a cage, instead of a ring. 

Conor’s boxing contemporaries have taken note of his meteoric rise.  In professional wrestling, there is a term called breaking the fourth wall, which occurs when a performer acknowledges things outside of the pro wrestling world.  As Conor’s fame has grown, many boxers have broken the fourth wall of boxing and expressed a range of opinions about him.  Some have expressed either a desire to fight him (as Canelo, Floyd Mayweather, and Amir Khan have done), or root against him (as Canelo and Andre Ward did prior to Conor’s fights with Nate Diaz), or cheer for him (as Sergey Kovalev and Manny Pacquiao did after McGregor’s destruction of Eddie Alvarez).  Of particular note has been the interplay between Conor and Mayweather.  Both men recognize profit-making potential; they are classic foils.  In Conor, Floyd finally has a megastar rival who isn’t scared to say outrageous things.  Conor in fact insinuated he would murder Floyd and bury him in the desert at one point, and on another occasion threatened to show up at Mayweather’s house. 

The simultaneous rise of MMA and decline of boxing has parallels that extend beyond the world of sports.  In the wonderful book Sapiens, author Yuval Noah Harari writes that it is ridiculous to conclude that large predators were eliminated by climate change rather than human advancement in using fire to kill; it is similarly absurd to think that boxing’s death is not due mostly to MMA’s rise.  Conor McGregor is the fireball sent to burn boxing’s habitat; instead of being able to hide in the forest, boxing has been smoked out and annihilated.  In Conor McGregor, MMA finally has a transcendent star able to capture the public’s imagination, which has proven to be the tipping point between MMA’s advance and boxing’s retreat. 

For years, boxing writers and commentators looked down on MMA and acted as though the sport was a fad, while boxing promoters like Bob Arum said it was for skinheads and homosexuals, and only appealed to white males. These theories have been debunked; there has been a clear societal shift in favor of MMA and away from boxing now that the McGregor Era is fully upon us.  Boxing writers have had to come to grips, grudgingly, with their new place as the second-most important (out of only 2) combat sports in the American psyche.  Mayweather vs. Pacquiao, the highest-selling pay per view fight of all time, took place merely a year and a half ago and yet already feels like ancient history.  Floyd’s follow-up pay per view fight against Andre Berto drew only 400k ppv buys, and Pacquiao’s recent fight against Jesse Vargas brought in only 300k buys.  Conor has more than doubled the combined pay per view buys of the two most popular boxers of the last quarter century in each of his last three fights. 

In the earlier days of MMA, boxers would demean the sport and its fighters.  Now, Canelo Alvarez, boxing’s biggest active star, can’t be interviewed without being asked about Conor McGregor; nor can Andre Ward.   I personally thought one of the most important moments in MMA history came not inside of the Octagon, but when Canelo was photographed wearing a Nate Diaz “I’m not surprised” t-shirt to commemorate Nate’s victory over Conor at UFC 196.  Meanwhile, Andre Ward admitted to buying the Conor-Diaz I pay per view instead of watching a boxing show the same night. 

Conor vs. Everyone in the UFC

Unlike previous MMA stars who didn’t want to step on the toes of their colleagues, Conor seeks out drama at every turn.  Many fighters are afraid that talking too much shit will come back to bite them; Conor uses the fear of failure to drive himself to new heights.  By talking so much shit, he has to perform or face humiliation.  Like a diamond, Conor McGregor has been formed under pressure, and most of his opponents have cracked under the stress.  Jose Aldo seemed to shrink away from Conor; Eddie Alvarez looked as if he had forgotten how to fight entirely, and Dustin Poirier seemed more like a club fighter than a world-class athlete when months of trash talking culminated in his quick humiliation at Conor’s hands.

Before his fight with featherweight (145 Lb.) champion Jose Aldo, who hadn’t lost a fight in 10 years prior to their 13-second match, Conor told Aldo in Portuguese that he (Aldo) was going to die, grabbed Aldo’s belt at a press conference, threatened to ride into Aldo’s favela on horseback, and said that Aldo was already mentally broken.  This, against a man who not only was seemingly unbeatable, but who was known for the incredible amounts of violence he could dish out.  Aldo, a ball of explosive muscle with the most devastating low kicks and knees in the history of the sport, had never before dealt with someone who blatantly disrespected him.  Most fighters tried to be kind to Aldo to minimize the long-lasting damage he would inevitably dish out to them.  Not Conor. 

Before his scheduled match with then-lightweight (155 Lb.) pound champion Rafael dos Anjos, Conor called Dos Anjos a fake Brazilian sellout who moved to America and abandoned his fatherland.  Conor said he would “behead Rafael Dos Anjos, I will drag his head through the streets of Rio de Janeiro through a parade of people.  I imagine it will also become a national holiday. Just a sign of recognizing who’s true and who’s not.”  Dos Anjos pulled out 2 weeks before the bout, as Aldo did as well before their first scheduled clash.  Conor called Dustin Poirier a fighter with “a weak chin and a weak heart” before decimating him in less than 2 minutes.  Conor said that Frankie Edgar just “wasn’t good enough” to beat Jose Aldo, said that Donald Cerrone was “too slow and too stiff”, said he would change Rafael dos Anjos’ “bum life”, and of course, annihilated poor Jeremy Stephens.

Conor has learned that the best way to stay relevant is to constantly be in the news.  At the weigh-ins at UFC 205, Conor had two separate altercations with welterweight (170 Lb.) champion Tyron Woodley, and a separate altercation with lightweight number 1 contender Khabib Nubragramedov.  Conor has even thrown shade on professional wrestlers to keep his name in the headlines; he said that Brock Lesnar was “juiced up to the fucking eyeballs”, and added that the WWE roster was composed entirely of “pussies”.  Needless to say, the WWE performers were not happy, but their rage made them look ridiculous; Ric Flair, the living legend, appeared laughably dumb when he suggested that Conor would lose a fight to several professional wrestlers who outweigh McGregor by 100 pounds; is that really something worth bragging about?

Conor vs the UFC

Conor’s toughest fight has proven not to be with another fighter, but rather with his employer.

Conor was the first UFC fighter to really talk about money; combatants in the UFC used to brag about being tough guys who would show up to fight anyone at any time; Conor changed that approach.  He started insulting other fighters because of how little money they make, belittling their skills and their value and their intelligence.  All of his images on social media with custom Bentleys and Rolls Royces and fancy clothes and watches inspired more than a little bit of disdain and jealousy from his fellow fighters, but what could they say?   

Similarly, there is only so much that the UFC can do or say when Conor makes demands.  Dana White took his best shot when he decided to pull Conor from UFC 200 after the Irish star refused to do a press conference in America which would have disrupted his training camp.  This led to a very public spat, causing McGregor to temporarily retire, only to then issue a statement saying he still wanted to fight and was just tired of doing endless promotion.  Conor’s rematch with Nate Diaz was moved to UFC 202, which set the PPV buy record for the UFC.  Given his proven ability to draw, Dana White was in no position to refuse Conor’s request to fight for the lightweight belt while still the 145 pound champion. 

Going into his fight with Eddie Alvarez, Conor had more at stake than just another belt for his collection: he had everything arranged to avenge his UFC 200 humiliation.  When he massacred Alvarez, Conor put himself in a position to dictate terms to the UFC; now it was time for Dana White and company to taste the humble pie. 

After winning the lightweight belt at UFC 205, Conor McGregor seized the chance to capitalize on his newfound leverage and issued his ultimatum: no return to the Octagon until his contract was renegotiated, including an ownership stake in the company.  This from a man who, by his own estimate, took home $40 million this year.  I can’t say I blame him; the company’s $4 billion purchase price was largely tenable to the new owners because Conor is such a revenue-driver.  The valuation of the UFC would be much lower without McGregor creating literally hundreds of millions of dollars for the promotion on his own.  If we estimate that UFC 205 did 1.7 million buys, that would give Conor roughly 4.9 million buys for the year from 3 pay per view events.  The other 8 pay per view events of the year have drawn a combined 3.6 million pay per view buys.  The math isn’t that complicated: Conor is worth more to the UFC than all of the other fighters on the roster combined, and it isn’t even close.  At $60 a buy, Conor’s 4.9 million ppv buys brought in $294 million of pay per view revenue (to say nothing of the higher ticket gate and merchandise sales), for an average of $98 million per fight.  The average non-McGregor card brought in $27 million of pay per view revenue.  Conor McGregor is thus worth roughly $70 million dollars a fight to the UFC. 

Given his outsized footprint on business, and given that McGregor holds not one, but two divisions hostage, it appears to be in the UFC’s interests to acquiesce to his demands.  The new UFC owners could try to play hardball, but the truth is that if Conor doesn’t fight for any extended period of time, the UFC will miss out on hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue.  There is nobody else in MMA who can fill his shoes.  Ronda Rousey is a pay per view star as well (on a smaller scale), but she only has a few fights left before retirement (by her own admission), and nobody knows how she will respond to getting knocked unconscious by Holly Holm one year ago.  On the men’s side, Jon Jones is a decent draw but is currently suspended (again), Daniel Cormier is a minor draw, Nate Diaz and Nick Diaz are both conceivably draws if they ever fight again, and Georges St. Pierre, if he comes back, will be a draw again.  That’s it.  Conor is bigger than all of them put together.  It is about time the UFC recognized that they have been outmaneuvered by McGregor; he holds the cards at this point.  To not give in to his demands would entail stripping McGregor of his belts and icing him on the sideline while fighters the fans don’t care about do battle for the belts that McGregor left behind.  Conor knows this, and so does the UFC.  Dana White has publicly acted nonplussed about Conor taking off until at least May to be with his pregnant girlfriend, but with each passing month, as the pay per view buy rates remain low, eventually the UFC will do the right thing for business and give Conor what he has earned.  

Conor's Rebellion

Will Dana and the Fertittas go Mad King mode or make peace?

The Notorious and The Unthinkable

I was all set to write a preview of Game of Thrones season six when the unthinkable happened: Conor McGregor, the biggest star in the history of MMA, the single biggest current fighter in the world in MMA or boxing, decided to “retire”.  Conor was set to face Nate Diaz in a rematch of their epic and shocking battle at UFC 196, which Diaz won by choke in the second round after getting battered for almost the entire duration of the bout to that point.  The rematch was to be held at UFC 200, which would have been a spectacle no matter what due to its nature as a centurial event, but was set to be the biggest pay per view in UFC history because of McGregor’s ascension, which seems to be unstoppable even in the face of crushing defeat.  Conor’s three previous pay per views pulled in 825,000, 1,200,000, and 1,500,000 buys, ranking as the 17^th, 3^rd, and 2^nd most buys in UFC history, behind only UFC 100, when Brock Lesnar vs Frank Mir and GSP vs Thiago Alves drew 1.6 million buys.  Conor’s 3 PPVs are the 3 highest live gates in UFC history.  UFC 200 was set to crush them all.  Two million pay per view buys seemed within the realm of possibility.  Conor became the first fighter in UFC history to earn a disclosed paycheck of one million dollars, before any pay per view points were factored into his salary.  He was getting adulation from Mike Tyson; Canelo Alvarez and Andre Ward talked about watching his most recent fight; Vin Diesel offered him a movie role.  The world was Conor’s, and then all of a sudden, he decided that he wanted no more.

Fast forward two days, and we see that it was all a rouse.  His retirement tweet literally broke the Internet.  Kobe Bryant’s retirement tweet was the most retweeted athlete retirement tweet of 2015 with 130k retweets; Conor’s retirement tweet got 165k retweets within 48 hours.  Today, as Conor wrote a lengthy Facebook post saying that he isn’t retired but rather wants to concentrate on training rather than doing another endless round of media, he restated his desire to fight on UFC 200 against Nate Diaz.  So far we have no confirmation (minus an anonymous TMZ report) one way or another if the UFC will do the right thing for their bottom line (and to not alienate their fan base), or if they will be spiteful to make a point. 

Las Vegas or Westeros

All this drama reminds me of Game of Thrones.  Who would be the Westeros version of Dana White?  Tywin Lannister?  No, Dana is not that clever.  Joffrey Baratheon?  No, Dana is not evil.  Perhaps the Mad King, Aerys Targaryen; both had a penchant for taking great pleasure in destroying their enemies, both were successful rulers for a time, both went crazy, and both eventually angered enough people to lead to a rebellion.  That rebellion in GOT was led by Robert Baratheon, Eddard Stark, Jon Arryn, and eventually the slippery Tywin Lannister, who had convinced the Mad King he was there to help.  When Jaime Lannister stabbed the Mad King in the back in the culminating moment of the rebellion, Aerys' last words before his death were "burn them all", telling Jaime to make sure everyone suffered for Robert's impudence toward the king.  If Dana and the Fertittas keep Conor off UFC 200 despite the hundreds of millions of dollars he brings in via pay per view revenues, despite the massive live gates, excitement, and media attention he brings, it will be Dana's Mad King moment.  

Burn Them All

Just as the Targaryens eventually pushed the people to revolt, so too is Zuffa angering the great houses (famous fighters) and the huddled masses (the fans).  The flight of UFC fighters to Bellator is an unintended consequence of the UFC’s shocking disregard for their fighters’ financial well-being, as evidenced by the terrible deal with Reebok.  The UFC has, since the demise of Pride, continually had a massive leverage advantage over its fighters.  Now, with the Reebok deal in place, the UFC has banned outside sponsors, therein pilfering income from the fighters, and making them more reliant on the UFC for their earnings.  Now instead of fighters receiving six-figures per fight from their various sponsors, they are allowed only what Reebok will give them, paltry sums ranging from 2500-40,000 per fight, the highest number reserved only for champions.  This leverage imbalance is compounded by the UFC’s purchases of its competitors, namely Strikeforce, Pride, and WEC; only Bellator remains afloat and out of the UFC’s pockets (and likely will remain as such, as the UFC is currently fighting an antitrust lawsuit and doesn’t want to veer into monopoly territory).  The UFC keeps salaries low and awards discretionary locker room bonuses to fighters who put on an exciting show; fighters are told to take it or leave it.   What can fighters do in this environment?  

Conor Baratheon?

Robert felt about Lyanna as Conor feels about glory and money.

When Rhaegar Targaryen kidnapped Lyanna Stark, who was engaged to Robert Baratheon, Robert didn’t just accept it; he started a war to win her back.  The odds were against him, going against such a powerful dynasty, but he believed in his cause, and was joined by other great houses, also wronged by the Mad King.  When the UFC told Conor to do another round of media to hype his fight and he refused, threats were clearly made by the UFC.  Conor didn't take it lying down; he announced his retirement on Twitter, and then passionately explained his side of the story after Dana claimed to be removing Conor from UFC 200.  Conor McGregor is not yet looking for war with the UFC (I use the word 'yet' because he clearly intends to become a promoter after his fighting days are done; note that in his Facebook missive, he wrote that he is “not yet” paid to promote fights, in a Little Finger-like message hinting at his true intentions), but is rather seeking what he believes is justice, in getting back what is his and was wrongly taken from him.  He may have, however, overplayed his hand, and if the UFC denies his request to fight at UFC 200, then a proper war could ensue.  Conor posted a photo of himself on Facebook tonight saying “your move” to the UFC; he is basically daring them to either give in or tell him no.  If they don’t let him fight, there is no way of knowing what will happen next.  Conor might actually retire, the UFC might sue him, and things will turn nasty in a hurry.   Brace yourselves for Conor’s Rebellion. 

The Mother of Dragons and The Creator of Red Panty Nights

It isn't hard to figure out what the people want.

A better analogy might be Conor as Daenarys Targaryen, who, after taking Meereen, has to deal with the old, spiteful leaders of the great city.  Even though all appears peaceful at times on the surface, the old guard hates Daenarys and plots her demise.   Daenarys stands for freedom for slaves, a dangerous concept in a great city built on the back of slave labor.  Daenarys sends the Unsullied to convince the slaves of Meereen to free themselves in a classic scene.  Similarly Conor stands for freedom for fighters; it is no accident that following Conor’s rise to prominence, Aljamain Sterling, Rory MacDonald, Ben Henderson, and Alistair Overeem have chosen to fight out their contracts rather than going for the safety of negotiating a lower salary before their current contracts expire.  Conor’s ability to bypass the UFC and connect directly with the customers, just as Khaleesi was able to bypass the masters of Meereen and speak directly with the slaves, is a game changer.  Further, just as Daenarys has something nobody else has in the form of dragons, Conor has something no other UFC fighter has ever had: leverage.  The UFC is used to getting its way, and controlling the message.  Because Conor has such a large fanbase and social media following, and because Dana White is a part of the social media world, he can’t hide from the blatant fact that all the fans want to see Conor fight, and will be incredibly pissed off if their favorite fighter, the sport’s most compelling competitor, is held off UFC 200 to make a point. 

Season 6 and a decision from the UFC await.  Valar Morghulis.