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Nielsen Sports: Conor McGregor remains huge hit despite loss

The long-term hit to Conor McGregor’s popularity in the wake of his UFC 257 loss to Dustin Poirier won’t be known for a while. But according to social media stats released after this past Saturday’s pay-per-view event, he remains – and will remain – a massive star.

Ratings firm Nielsen Sports recently reported on several metrics generated by the lightweight fight, which ended in a second-round knockout loss for McGregor. Much of the buzz generated by that setback was weighted toward the former two-division star, whose drew almost 10 times the number of engagements (22.7 million) as Poirier (2.