Conor McGregor’s claims were backed up by UFC president Dana White during a recent interview with “Sports Illustrated”.
During the first press conference featuring McGregor and his UFC 196 opponent Nate Diaz, the featherweight champion remarked that he asked for the fight to take place at 170 pounds – the welterweight limit.
Many wondered if it was just “Notorious” being notorious, but White made sure to cement the fact during the interview.
“The fight is supposed to be at 155. Nate says he wants it at 165,” White said (thanks to MMAjunkie.com for transcribing). “I said, ‘No, this kid is moving up from 145 to 155. You told me you could make 155. You’ve got to make 155.’ He can’t make 155, so I said, “Let’s do 160.’ He can’t do 160, so I tell Conor, ‘He can’t do 160 pounds. He wants to do 165 pounds.’ Conor says, ‘You tell him it’s 170.’
“Now we have a welterweight bout. Conor McGregor is moving from 145 pounds to 170 pounds to fight Nate Diaz.”
White added that McGregor boastfully remarked, “I will fight anybody, anytime at any weight,” and told the UFC to simply “call me back” when they knew what was going on.
McGregor was originally scheduled to challenge Rafael dos Anjos for the lightweight title this weekend. Jose Aldo, Frankie Edgar, Donald Cerrone and Anthony Pettis were among those mentioned as replacements before it was decided that Diaz would get the fight.