It has been a wild couple of days involving Conor McGregor and the UFC. First, the former champion releases screenshots of a conversation between him and Dana White proving that McGregor was eager to have a busy 2020 in the UFC.
Then McGregor said he would be boxing Manny Pacquiao next. Pacquiao’s camp confirmed the talks yesterday. However, Dana White was not really pleased with McGregor when it comes to the way he tweeted all of this out. White said McGregor broke, “Man Code,” at the UFC 253 post-fight press conference.
Well, early this morning, McGregor had a rebuttal for the UFC President. In his response, McGregor pointed out that White broke code first, and he said that White is in on the Pacquiao talks. White said last night that he didn’t know anything about the boxing match.
Code was broke when you lied about me turning down fights mate. I said Justin in May and you went and said I did not want to fight. It’s not about Diego. Diego was a filler to get more fights in.
Also you have been involved in Manny talks the legal letters are there.
Stop lying.— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) September 27, 2020
UFC vs McGregor
Right now, we are in a classic battle of he said-he said. McGregor is right in that White originally commented that McGregor didn’t want to fight months ago. However, White clarified his comments later saying he was referring to McGregor not wanting to be a replacement.
That statement was confirmed by the former UFC champion’s screenshots. White came out last week and said that the UFC was working on something fun for McGregor in early 2021 so I find it a little hard to believe that White said that he didn’t know anything about the potential boxing match.
Ariel Helwani of ESPN reported that the UFC was in on the talks to make that happen. I believe that White was more annoyed by the entire situation and threw the response out there to focus more on UFC 253 versus what’s happening with McGregor.
It has been a frustrating year for McGregor and the UFC. McGregor wanted to be active in 2020. A fight with Justin Gaethje made sense. However, when Gaethje beat Tony Ferguson for the interim UFC lightweight title, that fight went out the window.
The promotion was targeting McGregor – Gaethje for their event in July. That would have headlined the UFC‘s first trip to Fight Island. However, Gaethje is now fighting Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 254 for the undisputed lightweight title.
I don’t think public spats over Twitter help anything. McGregor and the UFC have always had a good relationship, and I think that White and McGregor just need to talk it out. Although things look bleak at the moment, I still expect McGregor to fight in the UFC sometime next year.