Conor McGregor may have meant to extend the olive branch to Dana White during his ‘An Experience With… ‘ appearance in Manchester but his Instagram post from the same night certainly did not help.
During that PPV interview with Ariel Helwani, McGregor claimed he could set up a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. off his own steam but insisted he wanted to do it with the UFC. He declared:
“Me and Floyd have got to get together and figure this out and come up with a number. This is happening.”
“That fight is more than just being explored. There’s a lot of steps, but it’s the fight to make. It’s the fight I want.”
McGregor stated that, at 28, he had more than enough time to step back from his MMA commitments for the boxing bout before returning to the UFC. That’s all well and good but UFC president White was still rankled by this post on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BP0mts0htrd/
Just the six f***s there.
Reporters caught up with White this week and raised the subject of McGregor going for the Mayweather fight with or without the UFC. As for that expletive-laden post, White commented:
“Listen, Conor was walking into a pay-per-view where he had to sell to people [the concept of] hearing him talk. I’m sure people aren’t crazy about buying tickets of pay-per-views to hear him talk; they want to see him fight. I get it.”
As for McGregor going it alone to set up a Mayweather bout, White was more emphatic. He declared:
“It will never happen; that’s not even possible. He’s under contract with us. You have a contract for a reason.
“Let me tell you what, there are a lot of contracts out there, no matter what business you are in – UFC or whatever – and it’s pretty tough to get out of a contract.
“And if that’s what Conor wants to do, he’s got four fights left. He’s got four fights left with the UFC. Fight your four fights and, you know, go out and do what you want to do.”
The likelihood is that McGregor will seek the UFC’s approval were any Mayweather bout be agreed upon. At present, all parties are still feeling each other out.
As for ‘The Notorious’, he seems pretty confident that he will get his way…
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQRB_ytBwO8/?taken-by=thenotoriousmma
