Dana White believes the UFC will keep producing big names, but he is not pretending the company can manufacture another Conor McGregor.
White discussed McGregor’s place in the sport during The Pivot Podcast, shortly after McGregor’s UFC 329 return ended with a knee injury against Max Holloway. Ryan Clark brought up the 69-second fight, the audience it still pulled, and the way McGregor once turned UFC stardom into a worldwide sports story.
White immediately widened the point beyond MMA.
“In the sports world. I mean, not just the UFC, but in the sports world,” White said. “I look at a guy like him like a unicorn. People are always asking me, you know, who’s the next Conor McGregor? There’s never going to be another Conor McGregor.”
The UFC CEO said McGregor’s rise was not only about promotion. It was the moment, the personality, and the way the Irish star hit the sport before becoming the first simultaneous two-division champion in UFC history.
“And the time and the place and the way that he came into the sport, there will be a different superstar, but there will never be another Conor,” White said.
Watch the Pivot conversation below.
White Says UFC Stardom Still Starts With The Fights
Clark then moved the conversation toward UFC champions from earlier eras, naming Chuck Liddell, Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, and Jon Jones while asking how constant movement at the top has changed the promotion. White pushed back against the idea that title turnover is automatically bad.
“In 12, 13, 14, somewhere in there, people were like, ‘Oh, this is bad. The titles keep changing hands,’ and certain things,” White said. “It’s just, it is what it is. When you get a guy that comes in and dominates like Jon Jones, undefeated, never been beat in two different weight classes, it’s special and it’s unique.”
White’s answer fit the same idea as his McGregor comments. The UFC can get rare dominant runs, and it can get sudden breakout stars, but the promotion still has to sell the weekly product underneath every name.
“All that matters to me is that the best fight the best and that the fights are great,” White said. “And the beautiful thing about fighting is reality is better than any script you could ever write.”
White also tied the superstar discussion to fan trust. He said UFC tickets can move before fans even know the final main event because the audience expects the company to deliver if a matchup collapses.
“You get out and you start selling tickets. You have to create a level of trust with the fan base where they know, like, I can put UFC tickets on sale. We’ll sell out before they even know who the main event is because here’s what they know,” White said. “We’re going to bring you a great card with a great main event. And if the main event falls out, I’ll bring you a fight equally as good or even better.”
“And once you start to build that trust and that relationship with the fan base, that’s what matters,” White said. “You have to put on great fights with the best fighters in the world.”
McGregor’s current spot makes the answer matter. His UFC 329 comeback remained a major business event, with nearly 16 million viewers tuning in on Paramount+, but the injury left him facing surgery, rehab, and another wait before his final contracted UFC fight.
White has still kept McGregor in the center of several recent UFC business conversations, including when he rejected claims that popular fighters receive favorable matchmaking. The current answer was narrower: the UFC can find its next star, but the next star will not arrive with McGregor’s exact timing, noise, and pull.
