Conor McGregor wanted his belt on the poster. Conor McGregor got his belt on the poster.
Weeks after McGregor's memorable rant at UFC 196's pre-fight press conference, during which the Irish champion derided the first wave of the event's promotional images as "absolute garbage," the UFC debuted a new official UFC 196 poster -- one which had McGregor's featherweight title on full display, along with a 'champion vs. champion' tagline opposite lightweight king Rafael dos Anjos.
FIRST LOOK at the Official #UFC196 Poster! pic.twitter.com/UT6HFXLxWv
— UFC (@ufc) February 4, 2016
McGregor meets dos Anjos on March 5 in Las Vegas, NV. The match-up is the UFC's first true champion vs. champion superfight since 2009, when lightweight legend B.J. Penn moved up to welterweight to rematch Georges St-Pierre at UFC 94.
The initial promotional material for McGregor vs. dos Anjos lacked any sign of McGregor's featherweight title, which the Irishman won via 13-second knockout over Jose Aldo at UFC 194.
The belt was also an absent presence at January's introductory press conference, which prompted a lengthy attack from McGregor.
"Where is my damn belt?" McGregor said. "This is a superfight. I look up on that poster, I see myself tucked in the back there. I see a guy (dos Anjos) who, his last gate was $1.7 million. He fought on free TV. He's never brought a dime to this company. He's never made a dime. Yet, he's sitting there on the front of my poster. I think that's a department that needs to be looked at. Somebody is sleeping on the job.
"This is a superfight. Where are all these historic images? These are posters that will be looked back on long after it's all said and done. And then you've got to look back on that absolute garbage. So, I think I might have to go into that department, because they must be getting comfortable in that poster department. They ought to get their act together and start doing their damn job."
If nothing else, it looks like McGregor's message was heard loud and clear.