UFC boss: McGregor drama is not staged
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LAS VEGAS — When it comes to his Ultimate Fighting Championship, Dana White talks quickly, frankly and passionately enough that it could be mistaken for anger even when it’s not.
This time it is anger. The UFC has never had a bigger fight than this weekend’s UFC 229 showdown between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov, which is set to sell 2 million payper-views and maybe much more. But still, White is fired up. “Anybody who thinks this is staged, it is the dumbest (expletive) thing I have ever heard,” he said Thursday to USA TODAY. “How did we stage this? How could we possibly have (expletive) staged this? This is real (expletive).”
White is referring to the April bus attack. You know, the one where McGregor, then back in Ireland, saw his friend Artem Lobov being confronted by Nurmagomedov, ahead of an event in Brooklyn.
“He loaded a G650 plane full of goons and flew over here to do what he did,” White said. “That’s the way he is built.
You attack my friend, we attack you. That’s some Dublin street (expletive) right there, that’s what that is. For guys who didn’t grow up that way, you can’t wrap your head around that. But for a guy like Conor where he comes from, that’s how you retaliate.”
The images, especially those where McGregor hurled a dolly into the bus window, causing glass shards to cut UFC athletes Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg and leading to emotional distress for women’s strawweight champ Rose Namajunas, do not make for pleasant viewing.
However, the plot line that stemmed from it has clearly played a role in raising the profile of the bout with Nurmagome- dov. The bad blood has continued with personal taunts flying between the fighters. Two hours after this interview, White was scheduled to play peacemaker at a public news conference — flanked by heavy security — where McGregor and Nurmagomedov would face off.
White prefers not to think about what might have been. McGregor’s antics landed him in trouble with New York police and he isn’t allowed to fight in the state. The injuries to the fighters in the bus could have been worse. Which is why White laughs at the conspirators.
“People say it definitely (helped the promotion) — yeah, because it all worked out,” he added. “And yes, it is definitely part of the story line. Every weekend we do a fight and there is a reason why two people are fighting. This reason is pretty (expletive) good.”
At the time White described the attack as the “most disgusting thing” that had happened in UFC’s 25 years, though he has since come around on McGregor. He now says the 30-year-old’s relentless personality is why he is “the most famous athlete in the world” and a “gazillionaire.”
Make no mistake, McGregor is a headache. He’s perennially late — as he was Thursday — increasingly cantankerous, permanently bombastic. He took two years off from the octagon, stepping into a boxing ring to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. and then partying hard and spending frivolously. Still, he has enough money to walk away at any time and his financial demands are greater than anyone else.
However, he is a moneymaker beyond compare. Since joining the UFC in 2013, McGregor quickly went on a tear, but it was with a 13-second knockout of Jose Aldo in 2015 that he truly ascended to superstar status. His sharp tongue, quick wit and ability to generate a following have translated directly into dollars, and his popularity wasn’t shaken by a shocking defeat to Nate Diaz in 2016.
White has come to admire McGregor’s own promotional smarts and even more so his willingness to fight the best. Having last fought a bout nearly two years ago, in November 2016 to Eddie Alvarez, McGregor could have been forgiven for taking an easier challenge. Instead, he demanded Nurmagomedov, 26-0 and the lightweight champion, and arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in MMA.
“I can’t tell you how much I like Conor McGregor,” White said. “For a guy in my position he is a dream. As a fight fan, because I am a fight fan, he is it. He is the man. There hasn’t been anything like this since Muhammad Ali. People all over the world are McGregor fans. And the world is watching this fight.”