Conor McGregor is, by far, the biggest star in MMA history. ‘The Notorious’ was the first UFC fighter to break into mainstream pop cultural consciousness and has been credited by UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones as having “fast-forwarded” the sport by ten years. UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley, however, feels that he could be as big as the bombastic Irishman by the end of this year.

“I’m hoping to get another one in by the end of the year and be the biggest star in sports, not just combat sports. I think I go out there and put two beautiful performances together. I will be as big as Conor,” ‘Suga’ said in a recent ESPN interview. However, former UFC fighter Josh ‘Punk’ Thomson and MMA referee John McCarthy disagree strongly with the bantamweight champion on their ‘Weighing In’ podcast.

Thomson thinks O’Malley “cannot” be as big as Conor McGregor

Josh Thomson categorically declared that O’Malley “cannot” be as big as Conor McGregor by the end of this year, or maybe even ever. The co-host felt that the timing around ‘Mac’ and what the UFC’s marketing and PR machine was able to do with the flamboyant, verbose Dubliner may not be a formula that could be repeated.

“Oh no, he cannot be as big as Conor McGregor. Conor came at a time in the sport and the UFC put him on track to be this this fighter and then just blew up with the Floyd Mayweather situation the UFC put him into and helped get him into it just it doesn’t happen now,” he told McCarthy.

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However, Thomson agreed with Ilia Topuria and did give the American credit for attracting a younger audience to the sport and appeal to what he called the “Tik Tok market” and felt the bantamweight champion was trying to manifest being more popular than McGregor more than anything else.

“The one thing I will say and Ilia Topuria said the same thing was that he hits a different market for the UFC he hits the younger market he hits the Tik Tok market… But John you know you can sometimes talk it into existence,” he added. However, ‘Big John’ had a perfect counter to his points.

McCarthy compares PPV numbers to make his point

John McCarthy agreed that O’Malley did attract a younger fanbase, but pointed out that most young people are not willing or able to shell out $90 for a pay-per-view. The legendary MMA referee also compared O’Malley’s PPV numbers to McGregor’s when he was at the same point in his career. ‘Big John’ felt that because ‘Notorious’ had outperformed ‘Suga’, there was no comparison between them.

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“The Tik Tok market is a young market with a lot of people that make money and a lot of people that don’t. [And] when you don’t, you’re definitely not buying a $90 pay-per-view… At this point the pay-per-view numbers have spoken, yeah [it’s] not the same for [McGregor and O’Malley],” McCarthy noted.

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