There’s no truth to speculation that McGregor’s UFC 303 withdrawal was a hardball negotiation tactic as the Irish sports star’s contract comes to a close, says Dana White.
Don’t believe all the rumors going around that there’s something more to Conor McGregor’s UFC 303 withdrawal than meets the eye. According to UFC CEO Dana White, McGregor is injured, and that’s all there is to it.
Speculation has been rampant since “The Notorious” was forced to cancel a Dublin press conference for the June 29th fight against Michael Chandler for unspecified reasons. As we know now, the Irish sports star suffered a ‘minor’ injury in training and was hoping to push through it for his big comeback fight. But last week the decision was made to postpone the bout until he’s fully healthy.
But there’s always those who think something else must be going on behind the scenes for such a big fight to fall through. In a new interview with Jim Rome, White attempted to lay those theories to rest.
Dana White confirms that Conor McGregor is “hurt right now”, and shuts down any conspiracies of him withdrawing for other reasons such as a contract dispute.
He also says he’s typically “never very optimistic” when it comes to guys like McGregor and Jon Jones making their… pic.twitter.com/wTFgtu0u57
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“Put on your tinfoil hat, Dana, because you’ve heard all the conspiracy theories about Conor,” Rome said. “He’s not really hurt. He really just wants to negotiate. He really doesn’t wanna do any of the press. He’s really hurt, right?
“I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll say it again: Conor McGregor has never done that,” White replied. “Conor McGregor never leads up to a fight and tries to renegotiate a contract or get more money. He’s never done anything even remotely close to that. He is as solid as solid can be when it comes to being a business partner.”
“Conor McGregor is hurt right now. It’s it’s absolutely real,” he confirmed. “Yeah, no. He’s never done anything like that.”
The UFC and McGregor haven’t always seen eye to eye when it comes to getting his fights booked. After Conor missed a UFC 200 press conference to promote a second fight with Nate Diaz, the UFC pulled him from the card. McGregor responded by briefly retiring, angry that the company wasn’t letting him concentrate on training for the important bout.
Since then, McGregor has talked about staying more active and fighting multiple times per year. COVID and then a bad leg injury kept him largely on the bench. As 2023 and 2024 dragged on without a fight announcement, McGregor started calling out the UFC in interviews, demanding the promotion give him something.
“The Notorious” has just two fights left on his UFC deal at a very important time for the company’s future. They start talks for a new broadcast deal in January 2025, and having Conor McGregor under contract adds a lot of value in negotiation. That’s where a lot of this speculation come from: Mac wants to fight soon, and fight often. The UFC seems happy to roll him out for marquee fights once a year.
With their interests at odds in this regard, it’s not surprising there’s rumors that “The Notorious” tried to use his leverage as UFC 303 headliner to make demands regarding his last fights and a new contract. But according to White, sometimes an injury is just an injury and there’s nothing more to it than that.