More and more current fighters on the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) roster seem to be siding with Conor McGregor for the stance he took with his employer for refusing to drop everything and travel across the globe for a 30-minute press conference.
It’s a bold move that ultimately cost him his headlining spot against Nate Diaz at UFC 200 on July 9, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Now, one UFC veteran is chiming in and also sympathizing with “Notorious,” as Don Frye recently told Submission Radio that Conor — just like every other fighter — is paid to throw down and not to promote a fight which ultimately takes time away from training.
“I think he’s right. He’s spot on. I mean that takes so much goddamn time away from you. You’re hired to be a fighter not to be an interview, you know, or interviewee. You’ve got things to do. When you’re training for a fight it’s a 24/7 job, and if they got you doing more interviews and promoting than they do fighting, well then you’re not going to last long. You’re not going to have a long career. How do I say this without being rude? I guess I can’t, so I’ll piss on it. You know, Dana likes everything his way and if he doesn’t get his way he throws a fit, and that’s what’s happening. You know, and Conor’s spot on, man. You can’t spend more time doing interviews than training. This is a dangerous sport, okay? And the thing is, it went from a fight to a sport to a TV show. And it’s still a dangerous thing. And so you gotta prepare yourself for it, because shit, just training — if you’re in one of those fights and you’re not hurt, you don’t get hurt, it still takes two weeks to recover cause of all the hard training. But if you’re not training you’re going to get hurt.”
Of course, Frye has never been too fond of anything Dana does.
“The Predator” went on to say if he held the reigns over at UFC headquarters, he would do everything possible to get Conor back on the card by wining and dining him all while trying to figure out a middle ground, as far as promotional duties are concerned.
White and Co., however, feel they’ve already given McGregor too much leeway and aren’t going to bend over backwards for the fiery Irishman.
And if the two parties can’t come to a mutual agreement — fast — “Notorious” will likely lose out on headlining this other highly-anticipated pay-per-view (PPV) event.