For the most part, everyone is by now aware that Conor McGregor is finally set to make his UFC return later this year. Following a long layoff due to injury and other complications, the Irish superstar will be gracing the Octagon quite soon. As such, he will once again be working with Dana White as well.
In the past, a lot has been made of “The Notorious One” and his relationship with the head honcho. Naturally, many feel that McGregor has received a lot of ‘Dana White privilege’ over the years. After all, Conor’s fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. was one of the only non-UFC fights White has ever promoted.
With that said, there were talks of their relationship deteriorating, following Conor’s leg break in 2021. Mostly related to his return, the two were seemingly on different pages. However, it would seem that they have worked past it and will once again be working together for Conor’s fight later this year.
Dana White reveals what made it difficult to work with Conor McGregor
Ahead of Conor McGregor’s return to the Octagon, there has been a lot of talk about the fighter and the UFC. Previously, McGregor announced his fight only for it to be turned down by White in public. Thereafter, it was leaked that the fight would in fact be happening on the date Conor initially stated.
Recently, in an interview with Dana White, Lex Fridman asked the UFC boss what was the good, the bad, and the ugly of working with a megastar like Conor. Surprisingly, White had a lot to say:
“There’s literally no ugly, Conor McGregor has been an incredible partner to work with. If Conor showed up to things on time, there wouldn’t be one f***ing bad thing I could say about Conor. Put a gun to my f***ing head, and say, ‘Don’t lie motherf***er, tell me all the bad things about Conor McGregor’, I’d say the guy doesn’t show up on time, that it”.
Most notably, Conor was more than 20 minutes late to his pre-fight press conference for UFC 299 against Khabib Nurmagomedov. After seeing the Irishman’s tardy behavior, Khabib chose to take his leave from the press conference as well. In the meantime, Dana, who was sat awaiting Conor’s arrival, left on his lonesome in front of the the media and the fans.
Dana White admired this one quality of Conor McGregor
All things considered, Dana White does not have too many complaints about Conor McGregor. On numerous occasions, the UFC boss has spoken fondly of the fighter, often labeling him as a model professional. At the same time, despite many claiming that McGregor must pain to work with, the head honcho has always given him glowing reviews.
Commenting on his willingness and ability to get things done, White, in the same interview stated:
“Let me tell you what Conor McGregor never did: We never walked into a room and said, ‘Conor, this guy just fell out, we want you to fight this guy’, and it was like ‘No way, I’m no taking this f***ing risk, I’m at this point in my career…. he was like ‘Fook it, let’s do it'”.
“The other thing that Conor McGregor never did, no matter how big he was, and we were heading into a fight, ‘Oh Conor, this guy just fell out, yeah but I’m gonna need another f***ing $200,000, I’m gonna need another million dollars, Conor McGregor never did that kind of chicken-sh*t, bullsh*t kind of stuff. He never did any of that”.
Thus, it is likely that things like these have put Conor high on Dana’s list of top fighters, which has not gone down too well with other fighters. However, one can only imagine that there must be some truth to Dana’s statements, considering he is very upfront with how he feels about other people.
