Dana White says Conor McGregor could still compete at UFC 200 in July After yesterday’s bombshell about Conor McGregor being pulled from UFC 200, Dana White joined Colin Cowherd Wednesday on “The Herd on Fox Sports 1” to explain in further detail about his decision to remove the UFC featherweight champ from the marquee event in July. ” Conor basically said that he, he didn’t want to come to Las Vegas. We had a tour planned. We were going to start in Vegas. We were going to then go to Stockton, and then New York. And then he could go back to, you know, to Iceland, where he is right now. And he said, ‘I don’t want to do it. I’m not going to come.’ And I was basically saying, ‘You have to come.’ In the history of us owning the UFC, there’s been one time that a guy hasn’t shown up for his press conference, and it was Diaz vs. GSP. I pulled Diaz from the fight. You can’t not show up to promote your fight. “[It’s] not a money issue. That’s false. That’s the problem with the Internet. You have all these hacks out there who just make stuff up for clicks. Never, ever was this about money. It was never about money. Conor makes a lot of money, and Conor’s very happy about the money he makes. Conor for the most part is a stand-up guy. He’s never come back after agreeing on a deal, and the fight is announced, and he comes back for more money. Conor is not that type of person.”
White basically said it was an issue of timing and that the conversation with McGregor never got out of hand. He also explained that this wasn’t an issue over money and that relations between the two are fine. The most important part of the interview is that White left the door open for McGregor to compete on UFC 200.
“Yeah, if he called me after this interview, we would probably still do it,” White said. “The problem with this whole thing is you have to be here to promote your fight and you have to shoot this commercial. We’re spending $10 million in promotion for UFC 200, and all that money is motion. You can’t do this. I don’t care who you are, or how big you are, you can’t do this.” Stay tuned to MMAOddsBreaker.com for more updates on this story. Ricardo Lamas vs. Max Holloway at June’s set for UFC 199 Per “UFC Tonight” top featherweights Ricardo Lamas and Max Holloway are set to clash at UFC 199. Lamas (16-4) is coming off a unanimous decision over Diego Sanchez and is currently 3-1 in his last four fights. Hollloway (15-3) is currently riding an eight-fight win streak and hasn’t lost a fight since his 2013 setback to Conor McGregor. He went undefeated last year with wins over Cole Miller, Cub Swanson, Charles Oliveira and most recently Jeremy Stephens. UFC 199 takes place at The Fourm in Los Angeles. Here’s an updated look at the card. Luke Rockhold (c) vs. Chris Weidman – for middleweight title Dominick Cruz (c) vs. Urijah Faber – for bantamweight title Bobby Green vs. Dustin Poirier Evan Dunham vs. Leonardo Santos Kevin Casey vs. Elvis Mutapcic Luiz Henrique da Silva vs. Jonathan Wilson “Maestro” Dong Hyun Kim vs. Polo Reyes Tom Breese vs. Sean Strickland Mehdi Baghdad vs. John Makdessi B.J. Penn vs. Dennis Siver Clay Guida vs. Brian Ortega Jessica Andrade vs. Jessica Penne Dan Henderson vs. Hector Lombard Max Holloway vs. Ricardo Lamas UFC 197 Embedded: Episode 2