Dana White has given his side of what may prove to be his final round of negotiations with Conor McGregor.
It is now well-documented that McGregor was in talks to make his return to the Octagon this summer but the discussion fell apart due to the Irishman’s apparent refusal to fight in a co-main event.
The UFC, who have acquiesced to the vast majority of McGregor’s demands over the years, wouldn’t budge on this one and ‘The Notorious’ has since announced his retirement from mixed martial arts.
Just hours before McGregor tweeted out his intent to hang up his gloves, UFC President Dana White appeared on Barstool Sports’ newest podcast, where he explained why he offered McGregor a co-main event slot this time.
“Yes, that did happen. Every time I deal with Conor, there’s always something. There’s always something to deal with and we get it figured out,” White told the My Mom’s Basement podcast.
“Let me ask you a question — we were going to do, the fight that was going to be on the card with him was probably going to be the heavyweight championship. Should that be the co-main event?”
Having convinced Daniel Cormier to postpone his retirement, White was aiming to have ‘DC’ defend his heavyweight belt this summer and didn’t feel right having a heavyweight title fight – traditionally the biggest bout in combat sports – play second fiddle to a non-title McGregor bout.
“The more people I hear from, the fans and the media and all this shit, if I end up putting Conor McGregor not as a champion on the main event, I guess I don’t have to listen to any bullshit do I?” White added.
“So if I didn’t do it this way and just made him the main event with no title, no nothing, everybody would go fucking mental and go nuts and start chirping about ‘oh he gets favouritism. 100 per cent.”
Earlier this month, McGregor claimed that he would be happy to accept a co-main event fight in exchange for shares in the UFC but White dismissed the Irishman’s demand in no uncertain terms.
“If you want to own a piece of the company, you’d have to put up the money to buy a piece of the company,” White said on TMZ. “That’s how it works.”
