This week, UFC President Dana White appeared as a guest on “The Michael Kay Show” on ESPN New York 98.7 FM to promote both the UFC 207 pay-per-view scheduled for next Saturday in Las Vegas, as well as UFC 208, the first-ever UFC event at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
During the interview, the UFC boss touched on a couple of topics related to “The Notorious” Conor McGregor. Among other topics he discussed about the Irish mega-star, White questioned how he is not the number one ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the sport right now.
McGregor, who currently sits at number two in the UFC’s official pound-for-pound rankings, should be the clear-cut number one ranked P4P fighter, according to White.
“When you talk about the pound-for-pound, they don’t have Conor McGregor as the pound-for-pound … the media does the ratings [and] when you talk about what pound-for-pound really means, how is it not Conor McGregor,” said White. “The guy was the [145] pound champion, [155] pound champion and beat a guy at 170 [pounds]. That’s what pound-for-pound really means.”
In what has become a regular occurence in recent Dana White interviews, the UFC President was once again asked about his behind-the-scenes relationship with the UFC’s hottest star, Conor McGregor.
While on the ESPN radio program this week, White again brought fans up to speed regarding where things stand between UFC brass and the reigning UFC Lightweight Champion.
“Conor and I are very cool,” said White. “Do I put up with a lot of different stuff with this guy? Yeah, I do because he’s worth it and he’s different. But I’ll tell you this, people always ask, ‘What are you gonna do when Chuck Liddell retires? What are you gonna do when Anderson Silva’s gone? What are you gonna do when GSP’s gone? What are you gonna do when this guy’s gone?’ The list goes on and on…16 years later, it’s no different. Everybody was saying, ‘What’s gonna happen to the NBA when Michael Jordan retires?’..If you’re a fight fan, we bring you great fights.”
Also discussed during his appearance on the show was his latest thoughts regarding a potential trilogy bout / rubber match between McGregor and arguably his biggest career rival, Stockton, California native Nate Diaz.
“The problem with the rubber match is Diaz is a 170 pounder,” said White. “He’s a massive guy. Conor is a very talented guy, he’s very, very good. Every time he goes out there he looks better… [But] we should have never done it in the first place. That’s what weight classes are for. They wanted to do it, we did it. They wanted to do it again, we did it again. They’re 1-1.”
White continued, “There’s only so many of those wars you can be in in your career. It takes a lot out of you. Some guys go into wars like that and they’re never the same after it. Look at Meldrick Taylor when he fought Julio Cesar Chavez. He was never the same after that fight. We’ve had those type of fights too. I believe that Rory MacDonald was never the same after the Robbie Lawler fight. That fight ruined him. I don’t want to do that to someone special like Conor McGregor. It’s just not right.”
H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the above Dana White quotes from The Michael Kay show.
