He may no longer hold a championship, or be as regular a presence in the Octagon as he once was, but Conor McGregor is undoubtedly still the crown jewel of the UFC from a commercial standpoint.

Tickets for his January 18 clash with Donald Cerrone at UFC 246 sold out in less than a day this past weekend, generating a gate of over $10 million in the process.

The sell-out marks the fourth time in his MMA career that a McGregor fight has drawn an eight-figure gate at the box office. In addition, the 31-year-old Irishman saw ticket revenues of in excess of $8 million for both of his bouts with Nate Diaz in 2016.

There is no doubt a section of the MMA community claims to have become tired of McGregor and his outside of the Octagon controversies. The fact that McGregor (21-4) has only fought once in an MMA bout since 2016 will also have done little to endear him to his critics. However, a recent fan tweet has summed up McGregor's value to the sport perfectly.

Twitter user "@AliBomaye1974_" listed the $10 million gate for the Cerrone fight, together with McGregor's $17 million-plus gates for his fights against Eddie Alvarez and Khabib Nurmagomedov and rhetorically asked: "Tell me how much you all 'don't care' about Conor McGregor again, please."

For good measure, the caption was included alongside an image of McGregor surrounded by stacks of dollar bills.

Currently, the only two cards in the list of top five grossing UFC events which did not feature McGregor are 'UFC 129: St Pierre Vs Shields' and 'UFC 200'.

UFC 129 was the promotion's debut in Toronto, Canada in 2011 - and took place in a stadium. The $12 million gate that the event drew is certainly impressive, but it must be noted that the event had a novelty factor surrounding it due to being the promotion's first time in the market, and that the card was headlined by the now long-retired St. Pierre.

A similar asterisk must also be placed against UFC 200. Although the event generated a $10.7 million gross, the card was a landmark for the promotion. Such cards are few and far between and cannot be relied upon to drive business several times a year.

The presence of McGregor on any card naturally leads to more eyeballs on the sport as a whole. In particular, the opportunity exists for fighters that find themselves on the undercards of his fights to utilise the spotlight to build their own brand - in much the same way that McGregor did back in 2013 when he debuted with the UFC.

Fans may not universally like Conor McGregor, but the fact remains that his commercial value to the UFC is currently many times that of any current champion - and may remain so for some time to come.