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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
"After UFC Dublin I went backstage to Dana [White] and Lorenzo [Fertitta] and I said 'this is the way we need to do it, things need to be different here.' The show must be a spectacle... [Having live artists sing fighters out] has never happened before in the history of the sport. Never had people sing people to the Octagon. [Sinead O'Connor is] a powerful woman, she has a powerful voice. When you listen to her music it's eerily beautiful. It's go to war music."
-Conor McGregor talks to FoxSports.com about Sinead O'Connor singing him out to the Octagon at UFC 189, and why he thinks there needs to be more of that with his fights.
Penick's Analysis: There's something to the spectacle that gives things a bigger feel, and it's what Bellator has tapped into with their "tent pole" events. Now, not every event is worth that type of show, and not every card can be presented the same way, or you get diminishing returns and wind up in the rut the UFC found themselves in for much of the last couple of years. UFC 189 was something different, something special, and UFC 194 is shaping up to be similar. Again, not every event can be like that, but when the UFC goes outside the box a little bit, things can be elevated to a different level. McGregor's brought some of that along, and forced some of those changes, and the UFC is better off for it.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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