CONOR McGregor was 44 minutes late but he could have been 440 minutes late and it wouldn’t have mattered.

It shouldn’t be a surprise the Irishman rocked up to the open workouts for UFC 229 almost three quarters of an hour after he was supposed to begin.

McGregor is late for everything. He’s notorious for it.

He’s always late because he can be late. McGregor has reached a point of stardom where he can quite literally do almost anything he wants whenever he wants to do it, constraints of the UFC be damned.

It’s not a big deal that he was 44 minutes late to his open workout, which began with his one-year old son wobbling across the stage and ended with some light pad work.

It’s just another example, a small but prescient one nonetheless, that McGregor is the one with the power.

Since the demise of Ronda Rousey, who was belted all the way to the WWE almost two years ago, McGregor’s star power dwarfs the rest of the UFC world.

He’s not fighter famous or even sport famous, he’s famous famous, worldwide famous, global icon famous. He’s the bossman here and why shouldn’t he be? The UFC fan base is vocal and dedicated.

The company would survive without McGregor. But they wouldn’t thrive. They wouldn’t demand prime real estate on television and in newspapers and across the internet. McGregor lifts the entire sport to a new level of exposure.

There’s no regular season in combat sports, no guaranteed finale at the end of the year where scores are settled and everyone tunes in. Stars have to be made and maintained and that’s hard.

That’s why the UFC wouldn’t care that he turns up late, like they didn’t care when he kept championships on the shelf or eagerly turned around and used footage from McGregor’s bus attack earlier this year in promotion for this fight.

What constraint could they possibly place on the biggest and most profitable athlete the sport may ever see? It would almost be fiscally irresponsible to do so.

Two years ago the UFC pulled McGregor’s rematch with Nate Diaz from the main spot at UFC 200 for not fulfilling his media obligations.

Such a situation seems absurd in hindsight, like the company was trying to prove that they were still in charge of matters and not McGregor.

Now, they have made their choice, and it was confirmed when the UFC followed McGregor down a yellow brick road of insanity and riches with Floyd Mayweather waiting at the end.

The economic realities of the situation speak for themselves.

McGregor is the one who brings the money and the fans and, as popular and decorated as Khabib Nurmagomedov may be within the MMA and general sporting spheres, McGregor is the reason UFC 229 could be the biggest event in the company’s history.

Two years since his last MMA bout and being more than 12 months removed from his last fight has not dulled McGregor’s star power or ability to work a room.

When his workout finally commenced, the crowd roared with delight whenever the lightweight title challenger raised his fist, bowed, or did just about anything.

To close, McGregor got on the mic, led the punters in a cry of “f**k the Jameson brothers” — his promotion of his soon to be launched Proper 12 whiskey has been aggressive and relentless — and promised a swift and brutal demise for Nurmagomedov on Sunday (AEST).

“It’s good to be back,” McGregor said, and he’s lost none of his gift for the gab, or the hordes of fans that have turned him into one of the biggest athletes in the world.

Those same fans booed Nurmagomedov lustily when he did his workout — a full two hours before McGregor.

Back by a crew of Dagestan wrestlers for whom chinstrap beards are non-negotiable, Nurmagomedov did a few sambo throws with his team before addressing the crowd.

“Three days. In three days you’re gonna like me,” he told the crowd.

The undefeated Russian grappler tried to fire back at the braying masses with jibes about McGregor’s family history, claiming McGregor’s grandfather served with the English navy “and killed you people.”

But the 30-year old was fighting a losing battle. Even in victory on Sunday he can’t win McGregor’s fans or notoriety.

That much, at least, is not at stake this weekend.