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In the days before (and after) Israel Adesanya successfully defended his Middleweight title against Paulo Costa at UFC 253 on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab, Emirates (highlights), it was Conor McGregor who was dominating headlines.
When he wasn’t accepting Diego Sanchez’s retirement fight challenge, announcing a boxing match against Manny Pacquiao or setting up a charity bout between he and Dustin Poirier, “Notorious” was leaking private text messages between he and Dana White.
So when asked about McGregor’s social media outbursts, White offered up his theory to Sports Illustrated as to why he feels “Notorious” has a pattern of doing such things right before a big event.
“This was a weird one. This was weirder and different than anything he’s done before. There’s almost a pattern here,” said White. “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. But he does it every time there’s a big fight.”
Then again, McGregor has always been very complimentary and supportive of Adesanya since they are stablemates at Paradigm Sports Management, so taking some shine away from him wouldn’t exactly be conducive of being a team player.
White and McGregor’s once-tight relationship seems to be on ice at the moment after UFC’s head honcho blasted his biggest star for breaking the “man code” over the aforementioned leaked text messages.
The outspoken boss has gone on record to say the McGregor would not compete in 2020, though recent reports suggested that UFC matchmakers have offered the Irishman a rematch against Poirier inside the Octagon.