Report: McGregor officially pulled from UFC 200
TMZ reports that Conor McGregor has been officially pulled from UFC 200, as he balked at media duties, even after the UFC offered to flying his entire camp to Vegas via private jet.
UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor got into a dispute with the UFC, reportedly over media duties. The fighter tweeted he was retired and the UFC pulled him from the rematch with Nate Diaz at UFC 200, the main event in what was expected to be the largest MMA event in history.
McGregor then posted a long message on Facebook, and followed up with a tweet.
https://twitter.com/TheNotoriousMMA/status/723303526861029376
TMZ reports that the UFC have made #TheirMove.
McGregor’s Facebook statement wasn’t enough to move the UFC — the organization is officially calling off his fight with Nate Diaz … a fight that came with a $10 MILLION paycheck, TMZ Sports has learned.
Our sources tell us … besides the massive payday, the UFC told Conor it was willing to move mountains to accommodate the fighter during the UFC 200 media tour.
Not only did UFC offer to fly Conor to every destination on a top-of-the-line private jet … but also offered to ship out every single piece of his gym equipment from Iceland to Vegas for this weekend’s media event so there wouldn’t be a kink in Conor’s training.
We’re told McGregor was told his gym would be set up identically to his Iceland training center and it would all be ready to go the second he stepped off the plane.
Still, McGregor refused to budge — and our sources tell us Conor was “shocked” when he was told the media obligations in Vegas were mandatory.
As for Conor’s future … we’re told he blinked on retirement partially because of anti-doping rules that require fighters to wait 4 months after they un-retire before they can fight again — and Conor doesn’t want to wait that long.
Dana White told Colin Cowherd he believes McGregor will fight for the UFC in the next year — but our sources tell us it will NOT be against Nate Diaz. Instead, he’ll have to fight Frankie Edgar or Jose Aldo.
And when he does return … he’s expected to do a FULL run of promotions for that fight too.
UFC middleweight Elias Theodorou did offer a compromise, but it was likely insufficient.
https://twitter.com/EliasTheodorou/status/723163758319661057