Dana White fires back at ‘frustrated’ Conor McGregor: ‘He can’t get…’
Taking a pragmatic approach to the situation, UFC president Dana White addressed the retirement announcement from a “frustrated” Conor McGregor.
The Irish UFC superstar announced his unexpected (yet also third) retirement recently citing poor negotiations with the UFC as one of the reasons. It was met with apprehension, however, as he had made similar sentiments before. Many have speculated that this retirement will only last until McGregor is offered a fight he is interested in, though that may take some time.
White spoke out on the matter, saying that McGregor wasn’t happy with how UFC 249 turned out. Justin Gaethje ended up filling in for Khabib Nurmagomedov who was forced out due to travel restrictions. Following that replacement, Gaethje went on to defeat Tony Ferguson, earning the interim lightweight champion and the next shot at the undisputed title.
According to White, McGregor wanted to face Gaethje, but elected to sit out when not presented with the opportunity.
“He wants to fight Gaethje. Gaethje just won to get the fight with Khabib,” White told ESPN. “He just beat Tony Ferguson. Conor had the opportunity to slide into that spot if Khabib or Tony fell out.
“He came back and said ‘I’m not a replacement fighter, I’m not going to do it.’ He would be in that position now if he took the fight. He didn’t, Gaethje did so Gaethje gets it.”
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There are few fighters with the same sway in the UFC as McGregor. Despite that, White claims that McGregor will simply have to wait his turn.
“Conor McGregor is frustrated right now because I mean look what’s going on,” Dana White said. “Look at what we’re pulling off. We’re literally just going to Yas Island right now to pull off these fights because the hardest thing to do right now is to get people into the country from other parts of the world. We are a true global business. We’re the only one pulling off live sports right now. If I continue to do fights in the United States, I’m going to burn out all my American talent.
“Now we got Yas Island ready to go, it’s set up. This is just a matter of Conor being frustrated I think in that he can’t get what he wants right now. It’s just not possible.”
Nurmagomedov and Gaethje will now meet in a unification bout on September 12th, in the main event at UFC 253. The location has not yet been announced, though it is presumed to be at Fight Island.
