UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor may never fight again according to UFC President Dana White who confirms this news.
Notorious has not stepped foot inside the Octagon since beating Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title at UFC 205 in November of 2016.
It was rumored Mcgregor was involved in a bar fight at a pub in Dublin this past weekend, but the much larger issue is making rounds that when will UFC lightweight champion defend his UFC title or never.
Mcgregor last has seen in action this past August in a much-anticipated boxing match against undefeated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather.
The Irish star Mcgregor end up losing his professional boxing debut to Mayweather via tenth-round TKO. Regardless of his loss, he amassed cash for his efforts, earning upwards of $100 million for his boxing match with Floyd. After cashing millions his desire to fight was expectedly blurring to where he may legitimately never fight again.
Earlier this month, the promotions were still optimistic McGregor would return as early as this year, on Dec. 30 at UFC 219. Both parties are working on in negotiating a new deal, however, and McGregor is not expected to fight again in 2017. White did not give a specific time frame for potentially stripping Conor McGregor of the belt, but said both parties are working on it.
As per White, McGregor’s future is anything but clear at the moment; he is coming off the biggest payday of his career against “Money.” (via MMA Fighting )
“He was being dealt with by the head of the ABC,” White said. “We were gonna fight him, regardless of what [McGregor’s manager] Audie [Attar] says, we were working on a fight for him at the end of the year. And he’s just not ready. Listen … Conor might never fight again. The guy’s got a f*cking hundred million dollars.
“These guys make money and that’s it. Fighting is the worst. Try to get up and get punched in the face every day when you’ve got $100 million in the bank. Money changes everything for a lot of people.”
Moreover, Dana White expressed some concern regarding McGregor’s recent reckless behavior and said McGregor was young, rich kid, even god-like figure back in his hometown Dublin. White admitted Notorious has a ton of talent but referred to the curious case of Jon Jones, who perhaps let the trappings of fortune and fame get to him before his life and career began getting out of control, with McGregor’s path recently shown signs of similar concerns.
“He’s a young, rich kid who is a god in Ireland,” White said. “That’s not the healthiest environment either. It’s all part of it. I don’t know if you guys remember in the very beginning with Jon Jones. There’s no doubt the talent was there. I used to go, ‘The guy is talented, but he’s young, he’s rich, he’s the king of the world now. Hopefully he can keep it together.’ That was way before the crazy shit started to happen. And there it is. It happens.
“What’s weird is it happens more in this sport, in fighting, in the fighting business, more than any other sport.”
MMA world had enough of it and finally asked UFC star Mcgregor to defend his belt or vacate it; White admitted this is simply not the case.
“We need to figure that out. Right now, with him it’s not about defend or vacate. We’re working on a new deal with him right now.”
On being asked, if he discusses the recent problems with Mcgregor, White simply said he would not. They are all grown people, need to figure on their own when to stop.
You can’t,” White said. “I’ve learned over the years you can’t have these conversations with them. They’re all grown men and women. To be honest with you, the only one who’s ever listened to me in all these years is Chuck [Liddell] and Ronda [Rousey]. And those are really the only two that listened to what I said.”
Dana White when it comes to working with Conor McGregor, there was only one issue he could really harp on the cocky superstar. (Via Bloodyelbow)
“He’s actually not that hard to deal with. If he could show up on f–king time, it’d be perfect. He’s cocky, he deserves to be cocky, the kid is incredible. Being cocky is part of this business. If you’re not cocky, you’re probably in the wrong business. You have to believe in yourself the way that this guy believes in himself.”
