Thread title is a little narrow minded since Conor has fought "for" the UFC since then. Anywayz... Conor doesn't need the UFC to be trending in order to pull a 10 million paycheck by drawing 7 figure PPV buyz. All he needs is the right opponent.
P.S. TS.... - Rousey didn't even start making "McGregor numbers" until after Mac began his PPV run. Prior to that she was way less than Mac's lowest PPV. If anything
their successes amplified each other.
Conor has sold the same amount of PPV's in 5 fights as Rousey did for 8. He never needed her in order to make his numbers.
2/23/2013 UFC 157 Rousey vs Carmouche 450,000
12/28/2013 UFC 168 Weidman vs Silva II 1,025,000 (obviously this was Spider/Weidman II that sold this one.)
2/22/2014 UFC 170 Rousey vs McMann 350,000
7/5/2014 UFC 175 Weidman vs Machida 545,000
2/28/2015 UFC 184 Rousey vs Zingano 600,000
- 07/11/15 UFC 189 McGregor vs Mendes 825,000 (mac's first & lowest PPV)
8/1/2015 UFC 190 Rousey vs Correia 900,000
11/15/2015 UFC 193 Rousey vs Holm 1,100,000
12/30/16 UFC 207 Nunes vs. Rousey 1,100,000