Dana White On Conor McGregor: We’ll Get This Thing Figured Out

Although Conor McGregor sent out a similar retirement tweet three years ago, it still shook the MMA world. Three years ago, it turned out that the tweet was part of his negotiations with the UFC. Which obviously led to many believing this tweet was also part of McGregor negotiating with the UFC. And particularly, being given shares in the promotion.

White recently told TMZ Sports that McGregor would never be given ownership in the UFC, which you can see here. The UFC President has commented further on stumbling block in negotiations, whilst talking to Game On! Vegas.

“I think that there’s some things that Conor wants and I think that Conor wants to get together face to face, he and I, and we probably will in the next couple of weeks. We’ll get this thing figured out.” 

“Who gets respected more than Conor McGregor does? Come on. Definitely not by me. And he’s got a lot of money too. He’s stuck on this thing where he wants a piece of the ownership. If you look at basketball, Michael Jordan didn’t own a piece of the league. Is Conor very valuable to the sport and to the brand UFC? Of course he is. But that’s a tough one. I think there are other ways we can make him happy.”

Because of the way the new UFC – ESPN deal works, by way of the fact that the UFC’s revenue won’t be dictated by the pay-per-view numbers anymore, it means that the UFC doesn’t need McGregor as much as it did before the ESPN deal.

But having said that, White still appreciates the fact that McGregor is in his eyes, the biggest combat sports star in the world right now.

“The biggest fights if I look right now. If Floyd came over to MMA. So if Floyd came over to the UFC and fought Conor again in a rematch, that would be huge. And a Conor – Khabib rematch is massive. Really the two biggest fights in the world right now are with Conor McGregor.”

Speaking to Ariel on The Ariel Helwani Show, McGregor’s friend and teammate was also optimistic that we will see the Irish man back inside the UFC Octagon again.

“One thing I do know, I know that Conor absolutely loves the fight game. He truly loves it. And I always say this, 99% of the UFC would have been gone if they made 100 million. They just wouldn’t be there anymore. And he’s still there, why? Because he loves the fight game, he loves fighting. I know he’s got something special in store for us.

“I think he’ll put away a few more guys, I just know him. I know he loves this game, e loves the fight game. This is his, it’s not just a job to him. This is him. He lives the fight game.

“This is a business, [the UFC] realise they are fighting for every percentage there. When it comes down to Conor’s fights, even 1% means millions and millions and millions. But in my eyes, of course he deserves a percentage of the UFC. Look at his last fight, it was two and a half million [pay-per-view buys] and the same year there was a pay-per-view card with 80,000 pay-per-views sold. That speaks for itself. He is the reason why the company was sold for $4 billion. So why shouldn’t he get a piece of that?

Do you think McGregor deserves a slice of the UFC pie?



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