With Conor McGregor and the UFC burying the hatchet on their brief but contentious feud, we can get back to talking about what actually matters: when McGregor will step into the cage next. There’s a lot of smoke surrounding a potential boxing fight with Floyd Mayweather, but that fight currently exists more as a publicity stunt than anything real. Way more likely is the possibility that the UFC will re-book the rematch between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz that was originally supposed to go down at UFC 200.
McGregor met with UFC owners Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta to discuss the bout over dinner and left their meeting all smiles. Unfortunately, White’s next meeting in Stockton with Nate Diaz didn’t go quite so well.
TMZ reported that the sitdown between the UFC president and mercurial Diaz brother “ended abruptly when Dana was visibly angry, stood up and beelined it for his SUV.” The parties met again later that day for more talks, but White later told website MMA Junkie that he “didn’t have a good day in Stockton.”
Nate Diaz has often been vocal about his desire for better paychecks, and after nine years and 22 fights with the organization, he may finally in the position to make the kind of money he thinks he deserves. The first fight probably netted him a seven figure payday. Is he now angling for eight figures, like McGregor makes? That’s certainly the kind of demand that would send Dana White out the negotiation doors without a look back.
We can only hope all sides come to an agreement so the fight can go forward sometime later this summer. As wild of a ride as these past few weeks of drama and negotiations have been, in the end it only matters if a fight comes together in the cage. It would be a shame if this one didn’t happen because of money issues.