Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White isn’t surprised that Floyd Mayweather’s team didn’t want to go to Dublin, Ireland on a recent tour. Mayweather and Conor McGregor ran the show during a tour that stopped at four cities and three countries. “Money” and “Notorious” are set to enter the boxing ring for an Aug. […]
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White isn’t surprised that Floyd Mayweather’s team didn’t want to go to Dublin, Ireland on a recent tour. Mayweather and Conor McGregor ran the show during a tour that stopped at four cities and three countries. “Money” and “Notorious” are set to enter the boxing ring for an Aug. […]
It seems as though UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is ready to squash his beef with promotion President Dana White. For the past few months “Mighty Mouse” and White have bickered back-and-forth through the media about Johnson’s refusal to fight former UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw in what could be a record-breaking 11th successful consecutive […]
It seems as though UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson is ready to squash his beef with promotion President Dana White.
For the past few months “Mighty Mouse” and White have bickered back-and-forth through the media about Johnson’s refusal to fight former UFC bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw in what could be a record-breaking 11th successful consecutive title defense. Johnson later suggested that White threatened to shut the 125-pound division down due to his refusal to compete against Dillashaw.
Johnson joined The MMA Hour yesterday (Mon. July 17, 2017) to offer an update on his relationship with White, claiming that he and the UFC boss are set to have a sitdown meeting and discuss their differences in two weeks time during UFC 214 weekend (quotes via MMA Fighting):
“I don’t think it’s fair when you have two grown men bicker on the f*cking Internet,” Johnson said. “You know what I mean? We’ll end up like Blac Chyna and Rob Kardashian. Grown men, they sit down and talk about it, and that’s what we’re going to do in two weeks.”
“It was just a big misunderstanding and we’re going to meet with Dana White,” Johnson said. “Dana White’s a grown-ass man, I am too, he’s got kids, I got kids, we’re going to sit down and get on the same level and go from there and see what options we have.”
Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Aside from his business with White, Johnson has also been making moves in regards to his managerial department. For the longest time Johnson’s longtime trainer Matt Hume served as his manager, however, the 125-pound champ decided to hire on Malki Kawa of First Round Management to handle those duties while he and Hume focus on what they do best – winning fights:
“Me and Matt both felt it was time to be managed by, to get a manager, tou know what I mean?” Johnson said. “It’s time in my career to bring in somebody who’s going to focus on that part of business, so me and Matt can focus on what we do best, which is get ready for the fight. Matt’s always been a great manager and helped me get ready for my fight and is one of my main training partners, now it’s time to put that responsibility on somebody else.”
Upon bringing in Kawa to manage him, one piece of advice he took away was to stop rushing into his next Octagon appearance so soon due to his anticipation to break Anderson Silva’s consecutive title defense record. Despite the advice, Johnson claims he will fight sooner rather than later as he wants to throw down one more time before year’s end:
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY
“They’re ‘you’re always in a rush to fight,” Johnson said. “You’re always fighting, fighting, fighting. you fight three times in 2013, you fought three times in 2014 you just f*cking fought in April. So relax, let your hand heal, and that way when you’ll have your best performance when you’re going up against the record, this record will probably never be broken again. So let’s relax, let’s get through this, let your body heal, let your hand heal, and we’ll go from there.”
“I’m fighting this year,” Johnson said. “There’s money to be made, and I want mine.”
Demetrious Johnson believes he and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White will be able to hash things out. Johnson and the UFC got into a spat when “Mighty Mouse” expressed his discontent over the way he was being treated by the promotion. As a result, he refused to defend his flyweight title against T.J. […]
Demetrious Johnson believes he and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White will be able to hash things out. Johnson and the UFC got into a spat when “Mighty Mouse” expressed his discontent over the way he was being treated by the promotion. As a result, he refused to defend his flyweight title against T.J. […]
It wasn’t too long ago that UFC President Dana White claimed his lightweight champion, Conor McGregor, wanted to fight No. 1-ranked Khabib Nurmagomedov in his own backyard of Russia. Now, it appears the Irishman is doubling down on those claims as he prepares to step into the boxing ring for the first time in his […]
It wasn’t too long ago that UFC President Dana White claimed his lightweight champion, Conor McGregor, wanted to fight No. 1-ranked Khabib Nurmagomedov in his own backyard of Russia.
Now, it appears the Irishman is doubling down on those claims as he prepares to step into the boxing ring for the first time in his professional fighting career against, arguably, the greatest of all time in Floyd Mayweather. McGregor is expected to take on the 49-0 “Money” from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada next month (Sat. August 26, 2017) on Showtime pay-per-view (PPV).
During the Mayweather vs. McGregor World Tour, the heavy-handed Irishman was asked if the rumors about him wanting “The Eagle” in Russia were true, to which he confirmed they were (quotes via MMA Fighting):
“That’s certainly an option that I’m exploring. That would be a spectacle. It’d be like something out of Rocky. I suppose this whole story is like a Rocky story, right? So why not face a man in his home country, and a crazy place like Russia. It’s certainly something I’d like to do. There’s a couple of options on the table so let’s see what unfolds.”
Mandatory credit: Adam Hunger USA Today Sports
There has been plenty of speculation that “The Notorious One” will walk away from the combat sports world after making the biggest payday of his life against Mayweather. McGregor silenced those rumors as well, claiming he won’t suffer a scratch in his fight against the undefeated legend and will take some time to brush up on his wrestling and jiu-jitsu before returning to the Octagon again:
“I believe so. I believe I’ll come out of this fight without a scratch. [Take] a couple weeks to refresh my jiu-jitsu and my wrestling – not that I’ve stopped training that either, I’ve still kept up on that, just less – and then we’ll see what happens.”
Despite some highly entertaining and shining moments (mostly on Wednesday’s Toronto stop), both the MMA and boxing worlds can definitely savior the end of this week’s at times cringeworthy Mayweather vs. McGregor world tour spanning four cities and three countries after a plethora of racial and homophobic talk damaged the hype of a bout that […]
Despite some highly entertaining and shining moments (mostly on Wednesday’s Toronto stop), both the MMA and boxing worlds can definitely savior the end of this week’s at times cringeworthy Mayweather vs. McGregor world tour spanning four cities and three countries after a plethora of racial and homophobic talk damaged the hype of a bout that has already drawn a ton of criticism for being nothing but a massive spectacle.
Of course, yesterday’s final press conference in London was marred by Floyd Mayweather’s colorful choice of slurs thrown at McGregor, but “The Notorious” also provided some lighter moments to make the final stop an at least so-so end to the bizarre, drug-out promotional whirlwind of this week.
One of those was when, despite having UFC President Dana White tasked with stopping him from touching him, he rubbed Mayweather’s shining head during his time on the mic. Watch the hilarious scene via Gifdsports on Twitter:
It may have provided some entertaining moments and hype-building quips, but overall it’s safe to say the collective combat sports world is glad the four-city, three-country Mayweather vs. McGregor world tour is over. The media whirlwind hit a high note on Wednesday in Toronto where “The Notorious” received a huge pop from the Canadian crowd […]
It may have provided some entertaining moments and hype-building quips, but overall it’s safe to say the collective combat sports world is glad the four-city, three-country Mayweather vs. McGregor world tour is over.
The media whirlwind hit a high note on Wednesday in Toronto where “The Notorious” received a huge pop from the Canadian crowd as he unleashed all of his best one-liners, which nearly all of hit home with hilarity.
The exact opposite was true of the following day’s stop in Brooklyn, New York, however, where he mockingly addressed accusations of racism earlier in the week with an extremely off-color sexual innuendo before humping the air for his female African American fans:
“Let’s address the race,” McGregor said. “A lot of media seem to be saying I’m against black people. That’s absolutely f*cking ridiculous! Do they not know I’m half black? Yeah, I’m half black from the belly-button down! And just to show that’s squashed, here’s a little present for my beautiful, black, female fans (humps air slowly).”
That scene drew a response from Mayweather, who had previously chose to let McGregor’s supposed racial undertones slide. After the Brooklyn press conference, however, “Money” could no longer keep quiet, and spoke up in support of his diverse team (via MMA Fighting):
“Disrespecting my daughter, disrespecting the mother of my daughter, disrespecting black women, calling black people monkeys is totally disrespectful. I have a diverse team. A diverse staff. And when I was young, I may have said some things I shouldn’t have said because I was young. But you live, you learn and you don’t say those things when you get to a certain age because it’s all about growth and maturity.
“Today, he came out today and did it again…I guess when he gets older he’ll look back and say I probably shouldn’t have said that.”
But “Money” wasn’t squeaky-clean in the whole situation, either, as clapped back at McGregor’s racial comments by making an extremely ill-advised homophobic slur at McGregor during the final press conference stop in London yesterday. That pretty much signaled that the entire world tour had devolved into little more than a spectacle for a fight that was already well past that point in the first place; let’s be honest.
And it appears that McGregor knows it as well, as the ultra-popular UFC champion spoke up at the post-press conference media scrum in London via MacLife on Facebook to admit his racially charged jokes didn’t find a home:
According to the megastar, the jokes didn’t play out like he wanted them to, and he was now going to leave it alone, as most ‘realistic’ people would know he is not a bigot:
“It didn’t really hit right. I’m just gonna stay where it is and leave it out. I know who I am as a person. I think most realistic people can look and know.”
So while “The Notorious” insists that anyone who truly knows him knows he is far from racist, that insistence will obviously be questioned by many after this week.
But even though his words will be dissected and disparaged as being focused on skin color, he cautioned his fans and everyone else to realize Mayweather is supposedly trying to turn this into something bigger than it is to sway fans to his favor:
“You can be fooled by him if you want to be fooled by him,” McGregor said. “You know the man’s character, you know his history. He’s trying to sway the people in his favor. I think it was a cheap, little [play]. … I was trying to address something in my own little way. But whatever. It is what it is. I had fun with it last night. If he feels disrespected, well he’s an idiot and then f*ck him as well.”
Finally, McGregor also offered his belief that the entire press conference tour became a game where people were keeping score, one in which he thought he won all four rounds even if the public opinion varies. With that established, McGregor chose to move on and shift his focus to preparing for what matters most – the fight on August 26:
“It became something different than before, like a battle almost, like a verbal type of battle and people were scoring it. I can’t anticipate something like the way it was, like it was going back and forth. But if you’re gonna do that, then f*ck it, let’s do it. I smoked him four rounds, I believe.
“It’s done now, it’s wrapped up. Let’s get ready to fight.”
