At a press conference on Wednesday, Dana White said that the UFC is in a phase of negotiations with Conor McGregor where he's not sure if the lightweight champion will ever fight again.
He also said that McGregor had been in line for a fight at UFC 219 prior to an incident at a Bellator event in Dublin earlier this month. McGregor jumped into the cage following fellow SBG fighter Charlie Ward's victory and subsequently got into an altercation with referee Marc Goddard. He also slapped another Bellator employee.
Listen, we’re still in that, 'Conor might not ever fight again [phase].' Guy’s got a fucking 100 million dollars! You know? I’ve got guys that made less than that, and were lawyers, and went to school their whole life and quit working. Right? When you go to school your whole life to be a lawyer, and you’re a good lawyer, you make a few bucks, and you’re done. The guy is sitting at home every day watching cartoons or whatever he’s doing, I don’t know. Joe Silva doesn’t work anymore. These guys make money and that’s it.
Fighting’s the worst. Try getting up and getting punched in the face every day when you’ve got 100 million dollars in the bank. You know? Money changes everything, with a lot of people. We’ll see.
The UFC president also addressed rumours which have been circulating in Ireland regarding McGregor behaviour.
"I don't think it's true because if it was true, it would be big. Conor can walk down the street and it's big news now. If this was true, I would just have to believe it was off the charts crazy. If it's true, we'll end up finding out. I can't chase these things around. If it's true, we'll get it figured out and go from there," said White.
He also suggested that McGregor is currently living in "not the healthiest environment", adding that the 29-year-old has "an overload of clingons".
And the other thing with the Bellator thing. He’s a young rich kid who’s a god in Ireland. That’s not the healthiest environment either. It’s all part of... I don’t know if you guys remember in the very beginning, with Jon Jones, there’s no doubt the talent was there. I used to go, ‘the guy is talented, but he’s young, he’s rich, he’s the king of the world right now. Hopefully he can keep it together’, and that was way before all the crazy shit started happening. And there it is... it happens. What’s weird is it happens more in this sport, in fighting, in the fighting business, than in any other sport.
Conor's got a lot too [clingers on]. When he travels. He got people for days with him. When you make that kind of money and you're that famous. You're a professional athlete and you're going to have an overload of clingons.
