Dana White fires back at Conor McGregor.
On Sunday night, Conor McGregor announced his retirement once again and the former UFC Lightweight Champion aired his grieves to Ariel Helwani of ESPN. The 31-year-old’s decision to call it quits is due to the lack of exciting competition and McGregor believes that he should be fighting Justin Gaethje for the interim belt.
Following his big win over Donald Cerrone at UFC 246, both McGregor and White seemed to be on the same page regarding a rematch against Khabib Nurmagomedov next; however, the match-up never materialized and the UFC President turned his focus onto Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje.
It appears that Conor McGregor was actually given an opportunity to step into the Lightweight title picture if Nurmagomedov or Ferguson pulled out of their scheduled championship match; however, McGregor had no interest in being the replacement fighter:
“He wants to fight Gaethje. Gaethje just won to get the fight with Khabib,” White said on ESPN’s First Take (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting). “He just beat Tony Ferguson. Conor had the opportunity to slide into that spot if Khabib or Tony fell out. He came back and said ‘I’m not a replacement fighter, I’m not going to do it.’ He would be in that position now if he took the fight. He didn’t, Gaethje did so Gaethje gets it.”
As of this writing, McGregor hasn’t responded to Dana White’s statement. The lightweight title picture should be very interesting once the bout between Khabib and Justin is finished at UFC 253.