Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Dana White suggests Conor McGregor was trying to steal Israel Adesanya’s thunder in the leadup to UFC 253.
Dana White believes he may have spotted a pattern in Conor McGregor’s behavior: The Irishman is always trying to ‘steal the thunder’ from his fellow fighters either the day before, or after, a big UFC event.
McGregor’s latest antics came in the leadup to UFC 253, where ‘The Notorious’ made headlines for leaking private text messages from Dana White and campaigning for a charity MMA bout with Dustin Poirier for ‘half a mil.’
Speaking to Sports Illustrated in a recent interview, White says McGregor may have been trying to steal Adesanya’s thunder in the leadup to UFC 253, which saw ‘The Last Stylebender’ dazzle fans with a masterclass performance against Paulo Costa at UFC Fight Island in Abu Dhabi.
“This was a weird one,” White said. “This was weirder and different than anything he’s done before. There’s almost a pattern here. When we’re about to do a massive fight — and Israel Adesanya broke a ton of records last week in a global, massive fight — the day before that fight, he starts announcing he’s going to fight this guy and that guy.
“It’s almost like stealing Adesanya’s thunder,” he continued. “But, he does it every time there’s a big fight.”
Given that McGregor and Adesanya share the same management team at Paradigm Sports and how McGregor has always been very supportive of Adesanya in the media, it’s seems unlikely that he would have been deliberately trying to sabotage Adesanya’s success.
McGregor, who claims to be retired, hasn’t fought since his 40-second TKO of Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone at UFC 246.