UFC president Dana White had a lot to say in a recent interview with Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports. He talked about Conor McGregor's recent history and drama outside of the Octagon, but he also talked about the plethora of options that UFC has when it comes to dealing with the lightweight title. White has wanted to get McGregor into the cage to defend his lightweight belt for some time, and he laid out how he would do that on the call.
"As long as [McGregor] is willing to fight by March, we could do Khabib [Nurmagomedov] vs. [interim lightweight champion] Tony [Ferguson] ..." White said, "and then the winner fights Conor for the title. Or Conor doesn't wanna fight and wants to sit out until -- you know -- next fall, then we would have to make Khabib vs. Tony for the title -- not the interim title."
White seems to have no interest in stripping McGregor's title without a fight, but he does clearly want McGregor to get back in action sooner rather than later.
Another concern has been paying McGregor. When Iole asked White about compensating McGregor -- who earned a disclosed purse of $30 million last August when fought Floyd Mayweather -- White didn't seem concerned.
"I think that -- you know -- Conor's a smart kid," he said. "Conor is a very smart guy. He understands -- he gets what happened in the Floyd fight, those are f------ unicorns, those kind of fights, OK? Um, and I've never been afraid to pay Conor McGregor money, Conor brings the money in, and we've laid out a really nice offer for him and he's a smart kid, I think we'll figure it out. I've always figured things out with him. I've always ended up getting a deal done with Conor McGregor. The question is -- and you're right -- is -- does he have so much money that he doesn't care anymore and he doesn't really wanna fight?"
White seems intent on getting McGregor back, but if McGregor doesn't want to, there is a decent chance we'll be seeing Khabib vs. Ferguson for the real lightweight belt -- not just a stake in it.
