Conor McGregor named most-hated UFC star on social media among fight fans

Conor McGregor's ability to divide opinion shows no sign of waning – if a recent study of UFC fans is anything to go by.

'The Notorious' is undoubtedly one of MMA's biggest global stars, with his in-ring ability going hand in hand with his antics outside the ring. Whether it be attacking buses, promoting his own brand of whiskey, or rocking up for the Monaco Grand Prix in a luxury yacht, McGregor is rarely out of the headlines.

Even now, as he continues his rehabilitation from the broken leg he sustained at the hands of Dustin Poirier last July, speculation is rife as to who the Dubliner will fight next. And his new heavyweight frame has led to suggestions he won't be coming back at his usual lightweight or welterweight level.

But his time away hasn't helped his popularity it seems, with him being named the UFC's most hated fighter in a study of fans' online activity, with Israel Adesanya the most liked. Research from Bookmakers.com has concluded McGregor is subjected to a mass amount of negativity on social media due to his brash nature.

As proof of his ability to both infuriate and delight though, he also landed in at No.3 on the list of most beloved fighters. The top spot goes to the Nigerian-born New Zealand fighter Adesanya, who is the reigning UFC middleweight champion.

Through a study of posts on Twitter and Reddit, McGregor, 33, cops around 29.31% negative feedback. However, positive sentiment towards the fighter is at 44.6%. In second place on the top ten list of hated fighters is light-heavyweight Thiago Santos, who received 28%.

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Also featured on the list of those loathed are TJ Dillashaw, featherweight contender Raquel Pennington, Liverpool's Darren Till, light-heavyweight Anthony Smith, flyweights Lauren Murphy and Viviana Araujo. Unsurprisingly, UFC 'villains' Jon Jones and Colby Covington are also listed.

However, McGregor, 33 is the only fighter with the honour of appearing on both the most hated and most beloved lists. In-between him and Adesanya [54.7%] is former flyweight champion Brandon Moreno, on 51.6%.

Of course, it should be noted that both lists are entirely based upon social media opinion. The online bookmakers' portal utilised social listening tool Linkfluence to extract the online sentiment data on UFC fighters from Reddit and Twitter.

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