Take It or Leave It – Dana White Not Willing to Negotiate With Conor McGregor

UFC President Dana White is not in the mood to negotiate with Conor McGregor. After Poirier and McGregor started exploring the possibility of a charity boxing event, the UFC formally sent contracts to both of them. In response, McGregor went on Twitter and declared that he has accepted the offer. However, he wanted the fight to happen in 2020. Unfortunately, Dana has made it clear that he wouldn’t tamper with the schedule that is ready for the remainder of the year and the McGregor vs Poirier fight will take place on January 23.

Dana White, in an interview with ESPN, said that he has no plans of obliging to Conor’s wishes.

“We offered him a fight. We got him his own date. We didn’t have a date this year. We have everything laid out for this year, with world champions fighting for titles. He wants to fight Dustin Poirier apparently, so we went to ESPN and got him his own date. He’s been offered Dustin Poirier on Jan. 23.”

“It’s a yes or no answer,” he added.

Dana White doesn’t want to mess with other fighter’s schedules to accommodate Conor McGregor

Just a few months back, Conor McGregor announced his retirement from the sport of MMA. Just like his previous two retirements, even this one didn’t last long as he is now ready to step back inside the octagon.

Read: Daniel Cormier Wants Conor McGregor to Join Amanda Nunes on December Fight Card

Dana White has said that he has no clue why McGregor is adamant about the date. At a time when all major sports leagues have resumed their operations, the UFC also has its plans made out for the near future.

Several UFC champions such as Deiveson Figueiredo, Valentina Shevchenko, Amanda Nunes, and Petr Yan will defend their belts in the coming months. Therefore, making adjustments for someone who is coming back from an unprecedented retirement is not on White’s priority list.

White said, “That’s not how it works. We laid out this year. He was retired. Would anybody disagree he was retired? Through this crazy pandemic year, we’re going through, we faced a lot of challenges. There were a lot of things done to make this thing work.

We made it happen. We have our schedule laid out. Fighters have committed to it. Fighters have started training for these fights. Conor came back and wants to fight Dustin, so we went out and got him his own date. It’s Jan. 23.” 

Apart from a potential clash with Poirier, McGregor is also eyeing a boxing match with Manny Pacquiao. However, Dana White says that he has no idea about the same.

Read: Conor McGregor vs Manny Pacquiao: Early Prediction