UFC prez White sounds off on company’s future
BOSTON » Dana White was texted a GIF of a dancing Joel Embiid from a friend who taunted the UFC president for the Philadelphia 76ers’ win over the Boston Celtics.
White, who lived in Boston for 10 years and is a diehard fan of the city’s sports teams, fired back with something more impressive: a shot of him flashing a Boston Celtics NBA championship ring straight from his courtside seat with team owner Wyc Grousbeck.
It’s been a happy homecoming this week for White. He caught a Celtics game, will attend Sunday’s AFC championship game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and New England Patriots, and caught up with countless old friends from his old stomping ground.
“Not a bad weekend,” the 48-year-old White said, wearing a Patriots T-shirt and jacket.
But the main attraction this week is UFC 220 on Saturday night at a sold-out TD Garden. Stipe Miocic defends the UFC heavyweight championship against Francis Ngannou and light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier defends against Volkan Oezdemir .
White touched on a wide range of subjects during interview Friday with The Associated Press ahead of UFC 220. — On Conor McGregor: Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov for the interim lightweight title, the one Ferguson won in October, was announced for UFC 223 in New York. The 29-year-old McGregor has not fought for UFC since he won the lightweight belt in November 2016 . McGregor has not competed at all since August, when he lost to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in his boxing debut.
McGregor could soon be stripped of the title.
“We can’t tie up the title two years, no matter how much I love the kid,” White said. “We’ll let Tony Ferguson and Khabib fight for the title and then Conor obviously will be the first one to come back and get a crack at either one of them.”
Will McGregor come back?
“I don’t know,” White said. “I don’t wait for anybody. I run my business, I keep rolling and that’s it. The kid’s got $100 million. Who knows, he might never fight again.”