Conor McGregor may leave the UFC for the BKFC. Continuing on his already successful entrepreneurial journey to go with his unprecedented MMA accolades, the wealthiest and most well-paid marital artist ever became a minority owner of the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) earlier this year.

‘Mac’, took the stage for the BKFC 67 pre-fight press conference, doing what he does best, hyping up the October 12 event on the mic, as he has done better than anyone else (except perhaps Chael Sonnen) in the UFC.

During the BKFC presser, the Irishman made a statement, that must have led to Dana White breaking out in a cold sweat. McGregor claimed that since he had only two fights left with the TKO Group Holdings-owned promotion, and the most important thing for him was money, he was mulling leaving the UFC after his current contract with the Las Vegas-based promotion expires.

‘The Notorious’, of course, will be a free agent if he doesn’t sign an extension with the MMA promotion, and would be at liberty to sign with anyone he wants. Dana White, needless to say, would move heaven and earth to keep ‘Mac’ by virtue of his popularity alone.

UFC 303, where McGregor was to make his comeback, earned the highest gate revenue for a UFC event ever, despite the Irishman’s recent skid in form. What better evidence than this to prove ‘Mac’ still rules the hearts of fans, who are willing to pay and pay handsomely to watch MMA’s biggest showman in action? And to do this despite ‘Mac’ currently having virtually every disadvantage a fighter could have coming into a fight.

But it seems McGregor is keeping his options open, undoubtedly to the chagrin and concern of the UFC CEO. “So for me, I’ve a bit of business left with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), two fights left on my contract. But for sure, we’ve got three lightweights up here on the dais. And you know I have my eye on all of this, you know. I’m not up here just as an owner,” the Irishman told reporters.

‘Mystic Mac’s explosive claim, of course, may throw a spanner in his current negotiations with the UFC.  Or it may be a deliberate ploy on his part, precisely because of the negotiations. In May of this year, the bombastic Dubliner took to social media to reveal that his team was engaged in respectful and amicable negotiations with Dana White and co. for an extension, which is yet to materialize. This presumably means that the two parties are still negotiating. While him floating move to the BKFC may simply be to get some leverage for his ongoing negotiations with the legendarily tough negotiation that the UFC boss is. On the other hand, he may well be perfectly serious since going to the BKFC makes perfect sense for ‘Mac’.

Why Conor McGregor moving to the UFC may be the best financial move

As you know, ‘The Notorious’ owns some equity in the BKFC. Simply put, this means the more expensive BKFC shares get, the more money ‘Notorious’ makes since the shares held by him would go up proportionally. And what could make the value of the David Feldman-led promotion increase more dramatically and startingly than having Conor McGregor, the biggest-ever mixed martial artist join its roster?

Not to mention there is already a ready-made matchup that will be as big as any other fight in all of the combat sports world. A fight between ‘Mac’ and ‘Platinum’ Mike Perry, who is bare-knuckle’s Conor McGregor, would be a massive event, possibly even a mega-event if the BKFC can secure some known and respected names for the undercard. Either way, their fight itself would undoubtedly be a mega-fight.

Most agree that McGregor’s best days as a fighter are behind him. On a sharp skid in form since his 2018 loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov, the Irishman is getting up in age and coming off a potentially career-ending injury to boot.

This calculus, of course, rests on the assumption that money really is the most important thing to McGregor. Then it makes perfect financial sense for him to fight out his current UFC contract in short order and move to the BKFC. The latter, of course, would be more than willing to sweeten the pot and give ‘Mac’ obscene amounts of money for it. Along, of course, with the money he will make as the BKFC shares explode in value. What are your thoughts on Conor McGregor’s comments?