Joe Rogan reflected on Conor McGregor’s unprecedented rise and fall as one of the UFC’s all-time great athletes.
Conor McGregor is one of the most important figures in UFC history and is arguably the biggest pay-per-view superstar in fighting. He’s taken massive risks in and out of the Octagon and has cemented himself as one of the highest-earning athletes in the world.
McGregor, who hasn’t fought in the Octagon since a loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264, was supposed to return at UFC 303 before suffering an injury. As of this writing, McGregor’s UFC future is uncertain, despite a familiar foe calling him out at UFC 309.
Before his recent UFC struggles, McGregor at one point topped the UFC’s pound-for-pound list after earning two divisional championships. His earlier success coined the term ‘champ-champ’, a nod to his title wins at lightweight and featherweight.
Now, McGregor has lost three of his last four UFC fights, and many wonder whether or not he’ll win another MMA fight before he retires. Rogan, an admirer of McGregor’s rapid rise to the top of the UFC, believes fame and fortune were centerpieces in the Irish superstar’s downfall.
Joe Rogan: ‘Money fight’ led to Conor McGregor’s dark descent
In a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan opined on McGregor’s recent struggles.
“Conor self-destructed in a lot of ways because of money,” Rogan said. “He took that fight with Floyd Mayweather, made a ton of money off that, and then took a long time before he came back to MMA—and he’s just not been the same guy since.
“I think that’s just money, it’s a lot of partying, but it’s the same kind of thing. It’s just wild. But when Conor was in his prime, he was a f***ing assassin.” (h/t MiddleEasy)
McGregor and Boxing Hall of Famer Floyd Mayweather Jr. fought in the infamous ‘money fight’ in 2017. It was McGregor’s professional boxing debut, and despite an impressive start, he lost to Mayweather by TKO
Joe Rogan compares Jon Jones and Conor McGregor’s responses to controversy
In contrast to his stance on McGregor’s slide, Rogan then brought up Jon Jones, who has found sustained UFC success despite his out-of-competition controversies.
“Jon [Jones] is a special dude, when he’s gone, we’re all going to miss him,” Rogan said. “He’s a different kind of guy. I mean, he’s been at the top for 14 f years. He was the youngest guy to ever win a UFC title, 23…But when Jon Jones won that title at 23, it’s just been [a] destruction of everyone ever since.
“Never ducked anybody, fought all the best, destroyed everybody, and dominated his division—went up to heavyweight, dominates at heavyweight.” (h/t MiddleEasy)
Jones most recently defended the UFC heavyweight championship at UFC 309 over Stipe Miocic. After winning the fight by TKO, he’s likely set for a clash with interim UFC heavyweight titleholder Tom Aspinall in 2025.
Jones has taken multiple leaves of absence from the UFC Octagon due to legal issues and controversial moments. Despite this, he’s arguably the greatest UFC fighter of all time after a largely unblemished fighting career.
McGregor remains insistent on returning to the Octagon next year against another big-name star. But for Rogan, McGregor’s unprecedented rise will never come to fruition again for the former two-division UFC champ.
Conor was a wild and crAzy guy who loved to party hard. Shouldn’t be a surprise the road he went down when he got fuck you money.
Jones is just a functioning psycho.
Lots of athletes make a ton of money and party hard and show up weekly to perform at high levels and train hard. These guys also came from a lot shittier backgrounds than Conor and have much lower IQ’s.
Maybe Conor’s dad was a drunk and addiction runs in his family.
Conor crumbled when he came into serious money. Reminds me of Jamarcus Russell in a way.
But even before the Floyd fight Conor was making solid life changing money. He still was able to show up at a high level.
Conor was never that good to begin with.
I wonder if Dee is just waiting him out… then she will get all of the ??
She has his kids- she is good. She can likely take half now.
I kinda feel bad for Dee.
Connors known to sleep with anything that has a hole and he’s gotten in to so much hot water over his cheating.
That has to be humiliating for Dee, especially when she goes out in public.
I think you’re right. She’s probably waiting for the perfect time to take him to court and take half his shit.
I bet she’s documenting all his antics on the low and getting proof of it all
McGregor was just an unemployed social benefit plumber-trainee dude before fighting. Does it really take science to quantify how or why he went off the rails after making 1 billion dollars?
There was a youtube vid listing the net worths for all MMA fighters. Connor’s was by far the highest. That had $200 million listed for him. That’s the best kind of demise if you ask me.
It may not be accurate. It had Rorian Gracie near the top with $40 million or so. Did he even fight mma? I thought he mainly peddled pure waters.
I’m sure you can make a lot of money grifting the art of jiu jitsu to overweight subpar-intellect Americans, so $40 mm sounds feasible for Rorion G.
I mean, if people are willing to go to a gym to get wrapped up in garbage bags and sweat for an hour AND pay for it, it doesn’t seem out of this world that some jitsu guy has 40 mm.
For some people the worst thing that can happen to them is making a lot of money.
Yes , But Not Married iirc
The one thing I keep telling people I care about is: drugs never ended well for anyone. None of them I like do drugs but I don’t want them to either. Here’s Nick as the latest example. Trying to light grass on fire homeless outside a Chinese restaurant in Vegas. Fucking absolution of pathetic. “Uh, weed has helped me a lot”. Yeah, look where it got you and what’s become of you. Fucking disgusting.
At his core Conor is an attention starved little piece of shit.
the exact moment was during the run up to the boxing match. he was on stage in new york and said all black women wanted his cock. the crowd turned, he never got them back.
Re. Jon Jones. Disagree entirely. He is ducking Apsoinal rn. The Stipe fight was pussy ass fight and guaranteed easy win. That’s pussy shit.
The Gagne fight was also a no brainer easy pick em for him. He is not challenging himself or testing against the top anymore.