There’s been a rift between Conor McGregor and the UFC ever since the promotion took him off of their big UFC 200 event for refusing to join the rest of the fighters in a big press run. The size of said rift has been somewhat unclear. UFC president Dana White kept reiterating that the company had a great relationship with the Irish fighter. Meanwhile, McGregor stayed out of the media spotlight, occasionally posting something on social media about a theoretical fight with Floyd Mayweather.
But finally there has been some closure to the entire ordeal. McGregor met with UFC brass over dinner to sort everything out, and then he sat down with ESPN to explain what happened and why.
“It was a publicized civil war,” McGregor told SportsCenter’s Kenny Mayne. “I was going through some things, there was some crazy stuff going on back home. I wanted to be focused on my training.”
“I was in a time where I was figuring out something. I didn’t just shut out and say no to everything. I just wanted to do reasonable media. And then all of a sudden it’s ‘Hey Conor, it’s three months from the fight, we gotta drag you on 40 hour flights to come and do a run around New York, Vegas, California, 70 press conferences, 70 talk shows, adverts, all of this.’ I was like ‘I only made you 400 million last week!’ That was only last week, that fight. And now you want me to go? I need to get right. That’s how it all came about.”
Conor also finally addressed the rumors of a Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor fight and what he thought of the possibility.
“It was [Floyd] that leaked the rumor, and it said he gets 100 million and I get seven million,” McGregor laughed. “That’s a pay cut to me. I don’t take pay cuts. I thought boxing was where the money was at. The seven million is absolutely laughable. He’s talking 100 million, I’m also talking 100 million. I’m 27 years of age, and I’m just about halfway through a hundred million dollar contract. At 27 years of age, Floyd Mayweather was on Oscar De La Hoya’s undercard, so compare that.”
“He needs me. I don’t need him. That’s the truth of it. Who else can he fight? He fights someone else in the boxing realm and all of a sudden the pay goes from 100 million to 15 million. So he needs me. If he wants to talk, we can talk. But it’s me who is in control here.”
As far as his relationship with the UFC goes, McGregor says their recent issues are water under the bridge.
“It is what it is. It happens. This is the fight game. Sometimes emotions get into it but it’s important to recognize that emotions have no place in business. That’s essentially what it was last night. We just set it aside. There’s no place for emotions in this. We are doing beautiful things so let’s continue. Let’s fix it and continue.”