Dana White: McGregor has to vacate championship if he's retiring
Time’s up. The window for Conor McGregor to compete at UFC 200 officially closed, says UFC president Dana White.
During an appearance on “UFC Tonight” Wednesday, White made it clear that he hasn’t heard from McGregor and the featherweight champion will not compete at UFC 200 in a highly anticipated rematch against Nate Diaz.
While the UFC looks to fill the massive void on UFC 200, White has turned his attention to whether McGregor is really set on retirement. If so, he would vacate the featherweight championship and the fight between Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar at UFC 200 would be for the undisputed featherweight title.
“It isn’t about whether or not Conor McGregor is fighting at UFC 200 because it’s been announced that he’s not fighting,” White said. “The big question is if he’s retired because if he is, that belt is vacant and they will fight for the title.”
The MMA world was turned on its ear Tuesday when McGregor tweeted his abrupt retirement from the sport. Things became more complicated when White revealed that McGregor was pulled from UFC 200 because he refused to travel to Las Vegas for a news conference on Friday and to shoot a commercial for what will likely be the biggest event in UFC history.
Although White left the door open for the Irishman to rectify things and get back onboard for the rematch with Diaz, time was of the essence and the UFC president said he has no choice but to move on because of promotional obligations.
“Friday is not the first day of promotion,” White replied when asked if McGregor still had time to make a decision and fly out to Las Vegas before Friday’s news conference. “All of the fighters are here right now. Ten million dollars is going to be spent on promotion and the commercial alone is going to cost $1 million. He’s already missing stuff so the window is pretty much closed.”
White also explained that he has yet to hear from McGregor but the situation ran over the course of several days with White attempting to get the 27-year-old to commit to his part in promoting the event. Aside from the news conference scheduled for Friday, there is also a news conference taking place in New York on April 27 that McGregor would have been required to attend. But “The Notorious One” wouldn’t cooperate.
White still doesn’t hold any ill will toward McGregor and praised the featherweight champion for previously helping the company
“Conor is a guy who has stepped up to the plate for us when we needed him to and he did. So I didn’t want to go in there and say, ‘That’s it,’ ” White said about the ongoing conversations. According to White, he gave McGregor every opportunity to make it work but was unsuccessful at reeling in the UFC’s top draw.
“For some reason he didn’t want to do it. I literally tell our fighters that if they don’t [commit to promotional obligations] then they don’t fight.”
Also of importance is that if McGregor retires, he wouldn’t be able to return right away.
“If Conor is truly retired he would have to take four months off before he can come back because of USADA,” White said. “You can’t say you’re retired and not have random drug testing for however long you’re out and then decide that you want to come back.”
With McGregor still remaining silent, it appears that this situation is far from over.
