Cepeda MayGregor reflections

So, Dana White was let in on the press event announcing that two-division MMA world champion Conor McGregor will box Floyd Mayweather Jr. in August. White being there along with some of Mayweather’s people could, on the surface, seem to slightly bolster his earlier defensive assurances that, contrary to reports from multiple reputable outlets, it was he who had a key role in negotiating McGregor’s deal to box Mayweather.

Perhaps he did. Still, the whole time he threw his typical press-hating denials out leading up to the fight’s announcement truly made me think of the play Hamlet – The Dana doth protest too much, methinks, I thought.

At the time White rhetorically asked, Who else would be running the Mayweather McGregor deal other than me?

In fact, any number of people could have. Let’s forget the whole Mayweather side of the deal, and the fact that they are the only part of this fight’s equation that has ever negotiated single fights of this business magnitude, before.

Within the UFC itself, where Dana White has long been president, it has become common for some of the promotion’s biggest stars to refuse to deal with the quick-tempered, insulting executive. Before the UFC was sold to WME-IMG and its big-business deal-maker extraordinaire Ari Emanuel, many such disgusted UFC fighters had mandated that they deal with former co-owner Lorenzo Fertita instead of White.

Though the public knows next to nothing about the actual financial details of Mayweather Jr. and McGregor’s boxing pay-per-view deal, it is a good bet that it is and was a bigger deal than White had ever before negotiated for a fight. So, it would have made perfect sense if the adults decided to leave him out of the room as they worked on it.

About the author:
Elias Cepeda is a host of Sports Illustrated’s Extra Rounds Podcast, a staff writer at FloCombat, and has a weekly column for The UG Blog.