Conor McGregor outdone by Israel Adesanya and Brandon Moreno as internet's most loved UFC fighter, per study
Israel Adesanya and Brandon Moreno have outshone Conor McGregor as the internet's most beloved UFC fighter. While ' The Notorious' may still be the sport's biggest draw, other UFC stars have seemingly surpassed him in terms of a loving fanbase.
In a new survey, Bookmakers.com used the social listening tool Linkfluence to acquire online sentiment data from Reddit and Twitter surrounding every UFC fighter on the current roster over the past year.
Israel Adesanya tops the list of the internet's most beloved UFC fighters with 54.70% of all posts on Reddit and Twitter about him being positive. 'The Last Stylebender' is closely followed by Lego super fan Brandon Moreno with 51.60% positive sentiment.
Interestingly, McGregor comes in third on the list with 44.60%, a sizeable distance away from the top two. Trailing behind the Irishman are Tracy Cortez, Sean O'Malley, Jose Aldo, Manon Fiorot, Glover Texeira, Tom Aspinall and Zhang Weili in that order.
It must also be noted that only 12.90% of all posts on Reddit and Twitter about Adesanya were negative. Moreno incited even less hatred with merely 7.62% Reddit and Twitter posts about him being negative. 'The Notorious', meanwhile had whopping 29.31% negative posts about him on the internet.
Brandon Moreno's lego UFC belt. https://t.co/57vF7xfbxN
Should we be surprised to see Conor McGregor third on the list of most beloved UFC fighters?
Conor McGregor has undoubtedly been the biggest draw in the sport for a while now. However, the Irishman is seemingly losing his clout after failing to back up his words with performances inside the cage.
To make matters worse, the once classy trash-talker resorted to dragging Dustin Poirier's wife into the mix ahead of his trilogy fight with 'The Diamond' at UFC 264. After threatening to kill Poirier, McGregor went on to suffer a fight-ending freak injury, making it his second consecutive loss to the Louisiana native. The Irishman has gone 1-3 in his last four and has been out of action for nearly a year now.
Conor McGregor's trash-talking game also seems out of place with the Irishman frequently deleting tweets after trading barbs on the internet. His history of distasteful comments about Khabib Nurmagomedov's wife and father also hasn't served him well.
With McGregor's stock plummeting over the past year, it is indeed surprising that 44.60% Reddit and Twitter posts about the Irishman are still positive.