Opinion: McGregor is turning into everything he used to hate

Michael Blaustein of the New York Post says McGregor is losing touch with his fans.

In the last four months, McGregor has done almost everything you could imagine to alienate his fans. The 28-year-old has ignored the UFC to flirt with everyone’s least favorite combat sports athlete: Floyd Mayweather…Unlike England’s Michael Bisping or Brazil’s Jose Aldo, champions who only take fights they expect to win, McGregor will only fight someone who has a theoretical advantage over him because he understands everyone loves when the “underdog” wins…Unfortunately for fight fans, casual fans and McGregor’s Irish fans, their hometown favorite seems to have taken his bigger-is-better fight mandate one step too far during his time off. Instead of staying quiet and letting a lightweight challenger such as Khabib Nurmagomedov or Tony Ferguson make a name for himself, McGregor has decided he needs to box 40-year-old Mayweather, retired with a 49-0 record…The fight makes financial sense, seeing as McGregor is set to make anywhere from $25 million to $100 million, depending on which report you read. It’s the type of payday UFC fighters have not been entitled to. In order to get there, though, McGregor has stooped to the Mayweather’s level. He’s been all flash and no substance in a ceaseless war of words with the boxer in a painfully obvious attempt to hype up a fight that is crawling toward being set up…Unlike his UFC fights, this freak-show bout comes with equally big risks for McGregor. Mayweather is a despised figure thanks to a history of domestic violence and abhorrent treatment of women…The fight with Mayweather — which even White, the UFC president, admits probably will happen — may be the last straw for fans whom McGregor already has pushed to the limit.