Leon Edwards acknowledges that the rise of Conor McGregor was greatest for enterprise.
McGregor has been out of the UFC image for the previous couple of years as he recovers from a damaged leg, however he stays some of the talked-about fighters within the sport as a result of his tentative return (the previous two-division champion has focused each UFC 300 on April 13 and a July 29 UFC card as potential comeback dates) and his mainstream media presence. A remake of the movie Street Home that includes McGregor premieres on March 8.
Throughout an look on Up Entrance With Simon Jordan, Edwards—the UFC’s present welterweight champion who additionally awaits an official reserving—was requested about McGregor’s influence on MMA’s booming recognition and he took the chance to reward “The Infamous.”
“For me, I feel he’s nice for the game,” Edwards mentioned. “I feel he’s positively introduced the game ahead for the informal followers. He’s certainly one of these guys that you simply both like him or don’t like him, he’s who he’s, however so far as—what he’s achieved in sport, you’ll be able to’t take away from him. He did turn into the first-ever [simultaneous] two-division world champion, however he can speak all of the s***, he’s truly a very good fighter as effectively behind it.
“For the game, he positively helped the game. He didn’t take nothing away from it, he definitively gave extra so far as pushing it for the mainstream.”
Sadly for followers of McGregor, the UFC star has given them simply as many causes to jeer as to cheer lately. McGregor has frequently made headlines for the improper causes, together with a number of accusations of sexual assault (most just lately, McGregor was cleared of legal expenses over an alleged incident that occurred in Miami), different authorized infractions starting from assault to destroying somebody’s cellphone, and the notorious UFC 223 incident of April 2018 that noticed him throw a dolly threw a bus window in an try and assault rival Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Edwards flatly acknowledged that he may do with out all of these antics, however it doesn’t take away from McGregor’s contributions to the enterprise of MMA.
“I’m not an admirer of his,” Edwards mentioned. “I’m judging from the aggressive a part of it, the self-promoting a part of it. His private life is—I’m certain there’s different individuals in boxing or in soccer doing bizarre s***, however for me, I couldn’t give two s**** about his private life. It’s extra nearly what he’s achieved within the sport. The self-promotion a part of it, to every their very own, that’s what he’s going to do. He’s not my mate, so it’s what it’s.”
