Conor McGregor may not be long for the UFC, according to Jeremy Botter.
The reporter, who broke the news that the Notorious would face Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 197 in March, was on Newstalk’s Off the Ball show tonight, and claimed McGregor will eventually leave the organisation.
“Conor has never wanted to be a cog in the wheel,” Botter said.
“If you’re in the UFC, you’re a cog in the wheel. You’re just another part of the machine, you’re expendable, you get what they give you even if you get to a level where Conor has gotten to.”
The reporter claims McGregor’s ambitions are “no secret”, and remains committed to staging a fight at Croke Park, with or without the backing of the UFC.
“Conor McGregor wants to be the wheel. That’s been his dream from the beginning. He doesn’t want to just make a lot of money. He wants to make all of the money and he is following that boxing model.”
Botter told the show how McGregor trademarked his own company, McGregor Sports and Entertainment, last year, and his girlfriend Dee Devlin is president of the organisation.
“He is already laying the ground work for this,” Botter continued.
“I believe his time in the UFC is limited. I’m not saying he’s going to be out of the UFC 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 and then at that points he is going to go out on his own.”
Botter also claimed that McGregor’s ambition of fighting at Croke Park will not come to fruition while he’s in the UFC, but he is still interested in staging an event at the famous Dublin stadium.
“His intention honestly is to do Croke Park on his own. He wants to do that fight in Croke Park, the UFC are never going to do it just because of the timezone difference and how much cost it would represent to put on a pay-per-view in the afternoon and other parts of the world.”
