Dana White Says Conor McGregor is One of The Most Underrated Fighters in UFC

Yes you read that right, Dana White says Conor McGregor is one of the most underrated fighters in the UFC.

McGregor is easily the biggest star in the UFC. He is a polarizing figure in the mainstream media and has brought a slew of casual fans to the sport of mixed martial arts. On Oct. 6, he’ll look to recapture the UFC lightweight title when he meets champion Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229.

White recently appeared on the UFC Unfiltered podcast. He explained why he views McGregor as underrated despite his accolades and popularity:

“It’s funny to say this because of how popular he is and what a huge star he is, but I think Conor McGregor is one of the most underrated fighters in the UFC. Every time Conor McGregor comes out to fight somebody new and it’s a wrestler or it’s whatever, this is the fight that Conor is going to lose. He said that he would knock out Jose Aldo the way he did it, he said he would do it in the first round. A lot of people picked him to lose to Eddie Alvarez because of Eddie Alvarez’s style and wrestling. Look how he looked there. Leading up to the fight when he fought Chad Mendes — Chad Mendes is a wrestler, everybody believed that he would do that. Then after [Conor] won everybody said that Chad Mendes didn’t have enough time to train for it. The list goes on and on.”

When McGregor does battle with Nurmagomedov this fall, it’ll be his first MMA bout since Nov. 2016. On that night, he became the first fighter in the UFC to hold two titles simultaneously. The following year, he lost to Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match.