After the bombshell of Conor McGregor’s retirement tweet yesterday, people await with baited breath for any form of update. Late last night, UFC President Dana White appeared on ESPN’s SportsCenter to announce that the UFC had pulled McGregor from UFC 200, after the Irishman refused to make promotional appearances this weekend in Las Vegas.
Today, White made an appearance on Colin Cowherd’s The Herd to add some extra clarification (of sorts) regarding the UFC Featherweight champion.
What follows is a summary of White’s appearance, which while shedding some light on Conor’s future, seems to leave us with just as many questions as answers.
Dana on The Herd:
- We try and make exceptions and work around these alpha male and female personalities, but the one thing they aren’t exempt from is promoting the fight. Everybody, Ali, Tyson, everybody has to promote their fight.
- Our relationship isn’t damaged. Conor was making a lot of money for this fight. It’s not like I’m asking him to come and do something the others aren’t, it’s not like it’s 3 weeks before the fight, it’s 3 months.
- He’s actually a really reasonable guy, so him freaking out, this is weird.
- It’s not a money issue. The hacks online make stuff up for clicks. This was never, ever about money. Conor is very happy with the money he makes. He’s a stand up guy, he’s never agreed a deal and then come back for more cash. He’s not that type of person.
- I don’t think he’s retiring, and I think he’ll fight for us within the next year.
- Conor needs to clear up the retirement decision fast, because that will make the Edgar-Aldo title match for the vacant title. Not stripping him yet.
- I’m not mad, not even a little. It’s UFC 200, it’s a massive event. Plenty of people want to be on this card. I’m not mad at all.
- Dunno when I’ll talk to Conor again, we’ll see how it plays out. I’m not mad at him, though. The show will roll on.
- If he called me after this interview, then yeah! He can be on UFC 200. He has to be here and shoot this commercial.
- We’re spending $10m on promotion. You can’t not do it.
- The phone call wasn’t combative. I was talking to his manager, and they were asking to move the promotion all back to May. We can’t do it, the money is in motion.
- The fans care about the fights, and thats all they should care about. But everyone knows this has happened only once before, and that was Nick Diaz, and we pulled him from that fight.
- We do give Conor a lot of leeway. He delivers, but he wasn’t planning on doing so this weekend, so I had to pull him.
So what can we take away from this interview?
Well, firstly it must be said that White seems to be much calmer than most expected. The last (and only other example) of a similar happening in the sport was when Nick Diaz failed to attend a press conference ahead of his title bout with then welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. White was furious with Diaz, even publicly stating “I will never trust Nick Diaz again.”
Yet, calm or not, White appears to be sticking by his guns. Should McGregor not arrive in Vegas to meet his promotional agreements this weekend, then it’s safe to say the Featherweight champion will not be fighting at UFC 200. As of yet, that seems to be the only thing that can be confirmed.
As for full-on retirement? As in a lifetime of golf and lying on beaches?
Well, it appears the only person who can answer that particular question currently chooses to remain silent.
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