UFC president Dana White sat down with media last night to discuss the current state of affairs. Regarding Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz, the news is definitely not good…
The MMA world watches and waits keenly for the return of Conor McGregor. Whether it’s his biggest fans or most ardent haters, McGregor’s next move is being speculated wildly on a daily basis.
That’s because whatever it may be, McGregor’s decision to defend or vacate, to fight on or retire, has a huge impact on pretty much everyone. Currently the lightweight champion, ‘The Notorious’ hasn’t fought in MMA since November 2016.
When he starched Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205, McGregor won the lightweight world title, adding to the featherweight belt he still held. Although he was later stripped of the 145-pound championship for not defending, he’d made history as predicted.
Now, nearly 13 months and one boxing match later, ‘The Notorious’ and his career in MMA are in question.
More Money, More Problems…For Everyone
Now that he’s made a cool $100 million (estimated) for boxing Floyd Mayweather, McGregor is proving a hard bargain to get back in the octagon. With Tony Ferguson the interim champion, the division needs the unification match.
Problem is, according to UFC president Dana White, ‘The Notorious’ doesn’t need the money anymore. As per Kevin Iole of Yahoo, White says McGregor is worth every penny, but the UFC essentially can’t pay him enough.
As a result, the baldfather says McGregor might never fight again, let alone defend a title:
“Conor Might Never Fight Again”
“Listen, Conor might never fight again,” White said as he was discussing the McGregor-Bellator incident. “He made $100 [expletive] million. I’ve got guys who made less than that who are lawyers and went to school their whole lives and quit working. When you go to school your whole life to be a lawyer, and you’re a good lawyer, and you make a few bucks and you’re done? The guy’s sitting home every day watching cartoons or whatever he’s doing. I don’t know.
“[Ex-UFC matchmaker] Joe Silva doesn’t work any more. These guys make money and that’s it. Fighting is the worst. Fighting is the worst. Try to get up and get punched in the face every day when you have $100 million in the bank. Money changes everything with a lot of people.”
The same basically goes for Nate Diaz:
"Nate Diaz has turned down a fight with everyone on the roster. We've been offering him fights for a year and a half." -Dana on Nate
— Adam Hill (@AdamHillLVRJ) November 28, 2017
“Everybody always says to me, ‘You have to want this guy to fight. You’ve got to want this guy to fight,’ ” White said. “I don’t want anybody to fight unless they want to fight. This isn’t a business where you can just make people fight. You either want it or you don’t. That was my big thing with [Georges St-Pierre]. He wasn’t acting like a guy who really wants it. At the end of the day, I’m going to run this business with or without anybody.
“If Conor wants to fight again, absolutely we want Conor to come fight. But if Conor walks away and doesn’t ever want to fight again, it’s part of the game.”
