This might explain why Uncle Dana failed to take questions at the post-UFC 194 press conference.
Dana White may contest that Conor McGregor is his promotions biggest star but a lightweight title win would quell those questions once and for all.
McGregor’s star has rapidly risen over the past two and a half years but there appear to be few signs of his ascent slowing.
On last night’s Off The Ball, Bleacher Report writer Jeremy Botter revealed McGregor’s latest contract, which was activated after he defeated Jose Aldo last month, is now worth between $16-20m per fight.
Botter believes McGregor is not far off a breakaway from the UFC – he trademarked ‘McGregor Sports & Entertainment in 2015 – and that his eagerness to have most of the PPV pie has already irked his current employers.
“His time in the UFC is limited,” said Botter. “I’m not saying [his exit] will be this year or next year, but I do believe he has a set amount of fights left that he wants to do with the UFC. At that point, I think he wants to go out on his own.”
The power that McGregor now holds has seen his once close relationship with White, the UFC president, turn “icy”. Botter said:
“I believe that things between Conor and [UFC chief executive] Lorenzo Fertitta are okay but, from what I understand, Dana White has been frozen out of the process entirely and I don’t know why.
“There was going to come a point where… they’ve created this and now they can’t put it back in the cage.”
He added, “They went out and were Conor’s best friends – you’ve seen the video of him driving with Dana down the [Vegas] strip and they’re hanging out at his house when he was training here last year.
“They thought they had a new best friend but what they actually had was a guy that wanted to be their business partner.”
If this is true, who is going to look out for McGregor when he is flying low at big press events?
