Back in 2015, Conor McGregor broke through in the biggest way. He dismantled Dennis Siver in his first stateside main event, then knocked out Chad Mendes for the featherweight interim title, then won the real thing by one-punching José Aldo at UFC 194 in Las Vegas. After that? It was Forbes lists, pay-per-view records, magazine covers, and nine-figure boxing matches with Floyd Mayweather. The year 2015 opened the floodgates for all things McGregor. That’s when the public fell in love with him, and he captivated the imagination of the fight game by turning everything he touched green.
We’ve seen big years in MMA before. After defending the light heavyweight title three times in 2006, the mohawked Chuck Liddell was the face of MMA, becoming the first star to appear on the cover of ESPN the Magazine heading into his rematch with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. He was the original fighter to get people over the paywall, to truly embrace the taboo of cage fighting. Ronda Rousey needed only 82 seconds over the course of two matches in 2014 to transcend the sport and become a pop culture figure of female empowerment. She was arm-barring people so quickly that some fans were losing their minds. Clay Travis wrote about how a prime Ronda Rousey needed to fight … Floyd freaking Mayweather. Talk about hysterical times.
Those movements were huge for the sport, but in my mind, nobody in MMA has ever had a bigger individual year than Jorge Masvidal in 2019. Nobody. When he faces Gilbert Burns at UFC 287 on Saturday in his home city of Miami, the Versace robe he first tried on that year will still fit. People still see him as the BMF, the king of Miami…