White: Why I didn’t ask Conor McGregor to step up
Dana White: “He’s the guy that I want to make a fight with, have the right amount of time to promote the fight, have the fight in the right place.”
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.”
– W. C. Fields
Khabib Nurmagodov and Tony Ferguson have inadvertently engaged in one of the oddest contests in league history.
The pair were scheduled to fight at the TUF 22 Finale on December 11, 2015, but Nurmagomedov withdrew from the fight with a rib injury. The rematch was scheduled for UFC on Fox 19 on April 16, 2016, but Ferguson withdrew with a lung issue, less than two weeks before the fight.
A trilogy not-fight was scheduled for UFC 209 on March 4, 2017. Not one to be outdone, Nurmagomedov was hospitalized while cutting weight, the day before the event. The UFC is an optimistic organization, and for a fourth time, the fight was made, at UFC 223 on April 7, 2018. With Nurmagomedov ahead 2-1, the fates evened things up, with Ferguson stumbling in a parking lot and suffering a knee injury that will reportedly require surgery.
Featherweight champ Max Holloway has stepped up to fight Nurmagomedov and in a conversation with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, UFC president Dana White said there won’t be a fourth attempt at making the bout.
Hell no, said White, as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting. I’m never making that fight ever again. Ever.
Further, Ferguson will lose the interim belt he won by defeating Kevin Lee, when Conor McGregor boxed Floyd Mayweather instead of fighting and defending his belt.
It goes away, said White. This fight’s for the title. This fight is for the title. The winner of this fight will be the champion. … As soon as these guys step in the ring and throw a punch, it’s on for the title and whoever wins, wins the title. We’ll see what happens with Conor over the next several months. I know he had expressed some interest in fighting in September.
It was extraordinary that Holloway stepped up a division on such short notice, but some wondered why Conor McGregor didn’t do the same.
Nurmagomedov was curious.
https://twitter.com/TeamKhabib/status/980519909972152321
I don’t think Conor McGregor could make the weight on six day’s notice, explained White. That’s a tough weight cut for him. Conor isn’t exactly the guy that I want to throw in as a late replacement fighter. He’s the guy that I want to make a fight with, have the right amount of time to promote the fight, have the fight in the right place, so I’m not interested in asking Conor to take the fight.
I think that Conor could return in September and it could be against one of these guys.
