UFC president Dana White has insisted for months now that former two-division champion Conor McGregor is only moments away from a momentous Octagon return. Now, at the UFC Vegas 74 post-fight press conference, White is admitting that getting McGregor to commit to a date is easier said than done.
The recent debut of the new season of The Ultimate Fighter sees McGregor coaching opposite Michael Chandler, with a fight between the two all but guaranteed at the end of the season, but no date has yet been confirmed.
Dana White Admits It’s Hard To Reel Conor McGregor Back to the UFC
White, when asked if he was worried the McGregor fight might fall through, refused to consider the option. “You can’t think like that.
That’s the business we’re in. Anything is possible in this business. Anything is possible, you don’t know. You guys don’t know this much of what goes on behind the scenes and how hard it is to put all these fights together.
First of all, Conor called me a couple days ago and loved the first episode of The Ultimate Fighter, and saying how happy he was to be a part of it.
And I think being here and part of the environment and everything else, he felt it again and felt like he wants to get back and fight. The one thing you guys have to understand is this kid has so much money. It’s like Khabib [Nurmagomedov] now. These guys got s***-loads of money and it’s hard to reel these guys back in and get them fired up to get in and fight.”
McGregor is one of the highest-paid athletes on the planet. Most of his money has come from business ventures outside the Octagon, such as the sale of his Proper 12 whiskey company, but McGregor, and White, insist that the Irish superstar is returning to the UFC, and soon. It’s just a matter of when.
However, if Conor McGregor has made his last UFC walkout, Dana White isn’t fussed. The sport will live on, as it has when other stars have retired.
“I never get concerned. We have a massive roster of people that want to come in and people that are ready to fight and people that want to be Conor McGregor, and be at that level. For the last 20 years everybody said, ‘Oh my God, what are you guys going to do when Chuck Liddell retires? You guys are f*****. Oh my God. GSP.
Anderson Silva.’ This and that. This is a professional sport. People come in here, they achieve great things, and they retire. You can never worry about that type of stuff. It is what it is. It’s part of the game. It’s my job and my team’s job to find new talent and build them and take them to that level.”