We’ve heard something from almost everybody related to the UFC 200 debacle at this stage.
Conor McGregor, Dana White, Nate Diaz, John Kavanagh – there are not many people whose opinions are required having heard from that quartet.
But one such party is Lorenzo Fertitta, CEO of the UFC, who makes quite a lot of behind-the-scenes decisions that are then brought to the public forum by president Dana White.
Apparently Fertitta was shocked that McGregor refused to fulfil the media obligations expected of him ahead of his next fight, which became the catalyst for the whole fiasco that has seen the Irishman pulled from the UFC 200 card.
Esteemed UFC referee John McCarthy relayed a story on his podcast Let’s Get It On that reveals a conversation with Fertitta in Las Vegas during last weekend’s UFC 197 card and McCarthy explains how Fertitta was taken aback that McGregor was acting in such a recalcitrant manner considering the potential paycheck on the line.
McCarthy said: “I talked to Lorenzo Fertitta at UFC 197, standing in the back, and we started talking.
“And he said ‘I never thought that when I had a guy who was guaranteed $10 million, that I would have a problem with him.'”
While McCarthy didn’t delve to deeply into his conversation with Fertitta, the referee went on to divulge his own opinion that McGregor may have passed up the payday of a lifetime by rejecting the chance to attend the now notorious press conference in Las Vegas last Friday.
McCarthy continued: “If you don’t think $10 million is a lot of money to make for a fight, you know what? You are crazy. That is life-changing money because as long as you’re not an idiot, you can take that and say ‘I’m going to walk away from this crap.’
“Great, walk away from it. Whatever is best for you, I’m all for. But that’s a tonne of money. Conor walked away.
“In that hand of poker, he lost. Because that $10 million might not be $10 million the next time he fights because it’s not UFC 200 and the amount of money that they’re looking to put in to promote that show and the amount of money they’re looking to make off of that show is going to be different from UFC 201. It just is!
“You look and you go ‘well, was not coming from Iceland to do that mini-tour worth the amount of money that you’re actually going to lose?’ Because there’s no way he’s going to get paid that same amount.
“He may make that $10 million in a fight but it could have been that he made a lot more than the $10 million in that UFC 200 fight.”
