Dana White: If McGregor wins tonight, next fight could be at Allegiant Stadium

By Case Keefer (contact)

Saturday, July 10, 2021 | 2 a.m.

A near octagon-sized canvas picturing Conor McGregor landing a right hand flush to Floyd Mayweather’s temple hangs just outside of Dana White’s office at the local UFC headquarters.

McGregor, the organization’s former lightweight and featherweight champion, has arguably been a part of more controversies than actual fights since he officially became a global superstar by crossing over into boxing for a loss to Mayweather in 2017. White, the UFC president, has been forced to deal with the fallout, ranging from something as serious to McGregor’s 2018 arrest for assault at a UFC news conference to something as trivial as the fighter announcing a second short-lived retirement during the pandemic.

But White has no issues with McGregor and says any reports about him having a fractured relationship with his organization’s most famous fighter are not factual. White appreciates everything McGregor has done to help elevate the UFC to new heights, which includes a $1.5 billion, five-year television deal with ESPN that began in 2019.

There’s no one White would rather have headlining the UFC’s return tonight to its home venue, T-Mobile Arena. McGregor will try to avenge a knockout loss in a trilogy bout against Dustin Poirier in the headliner of UFC 264, which starts with preliminaries at 3:30 p.m. ahead of a 7 p.m. pay-per-view main card.

Earlier this week, we caught up with White in his office to talk about the fight, the UFC’s perseverance through the pandemic, future mega-fights and more.

Read below for the conversation. Answers have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

How’s your relationship with McGregor and what’s it been like working with him recently?

I like working with Conor. It’s different. The only negative thing about working with Conor is when he shows up late, super late. That’s my only gripe ever working with Conor. He’s otherwise great. He’s different than anyone we’ve ever had. He’s a huge superstar, but when he’s part of a press conference, a weigh-in or a fight, it’s just more exciting.

The betting odds are moving against McGregor for what might be the first time ever and most people are picking Poirier. Is Conor being discounted in this fight?

One hundred percent. People have forgotten what he’s done and are looking at how much money he’s made. He’s the highest-paid athlete in the world this year. He just spent the last three months before he went to training camp on a yacht. Who the (expletive) spends three months on a yacht? So the storyline of this fight is, ‘How does a guy like that stay sharp and stay hungry?’ Dustin is down there in Florida every day training with killers, guys trying to take his head off. You know he’s going to be absolutely prepared for this fight.

Could this end up being McGregor’s biggest fight ever, businesswise? How are sales trending?

This is the most unique event we’ve ever done because of everything going on and reopening Vegas, a place we never imagined would shut down. The list of celebrities is the most we’ve ever had. Getting them tickets has been driving me insane. The tickets are the worst part of this job. I’ve been dealing with it for hours every day.

The pre- pay-per-view buys are the most we’ve ever done, and I’m telling people to pre-buy. Don’t be one of the 2 million people trying to buy it on Saturday at the last minute. I’m not saying this to sell the fight and secure buys. I don’t give a (expletive). I’m going to see it. If you want to see the fight, I’d just pre-buy it because the worst thing is when I’m sitting down there, and they come tell me, “People are having trouble buying the fight.”

A lot of people assumed McGregor’s next fight in Las Vegas would be at Allegiant Stadium. Is a card there something you want to pursue?

I’m not opposed to it, but you’ve got to have the right fight. If Conor wins this weekend and fights for the title, we could probably do the stadium for the next fight.

Have you been over there yet?

I have a box and I still haven’t seen it. But I was with (Raiders owner) Mark Davis Wednesday night, we watched the WNBA game.

So you’re all-in on the Las Vegas Raiders?

Let’s not make any (expletive) mistake here: I’m a Patriots guy to the core. But it will be cool to be able to be in Vegas, roll down the street and watch a game.

The UFC has a new local heavyweight champion in Francis Ngannou. You’ve foreseen a lot of superstars ahead of time. Is he the next one to reach that level?

Yes, he’s a big scary-looking heavyweight who viciously knocks people out. It literally doesn’t get any better than that.

He’s currently upset over your decision to introduce an interim heavyweight title for the bout between Derrick Lewis and Ciryl Gane, and you’ve taken a lot of criticism for that decision. Do you take that to heart?

Do you think I take it to heart? I don’t care. They’ll love me when all the fights come together. If you look right now, Derrick Lewis is the guy who beat Francis Ngannou and Ciryl Gane is undefeated. So those two will fight. It will be a great fight. They’re the two best guys in the world who aren’t the champ and whoever wins will fight Ngannou. Whoever wins that fight will probably fight Stipe Miocic, so we’ve got nothing but great heavyweight fights coming down the road.

Where does longtime former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones fit in? It seems like you’ve been deadlocked in contract negotiations ever since he announced his move to heavyweight. Will we ever get to see him fight Ngannou?

I don’t even think about him in the picture because he says he’s not going to fight until next year. I’m sure he’s watching to see how it plays out and who he wants to fight and who he doesn’t, but he had an opportunity to fight Francis. It was right there, and he didn’t take it. In this business, when you have an opportunity and it’s there, you take it because it might not be there tomorrow.

Could Ngannou vs. Jones be the first Allegiant Stadium fight?

I don’t know about that, but it could be big.

Bookmakers say the UFC carried their business through the pandemic. Did you ever see sports betting playing this big of a role in mixed martial arts?

Well, I’m a bit of a gambler myself. I know what it’s like to be champing at the bit to be betting on something. To me, it was like when we launched the video game. We knew the video game would turn kids onto the sport and who the stars are, how the moves work. We knew that would be a huge tool for us for marketing, and we’ve felt the same way about gaming. If we could get hardcore gamblers to start betting on UFC, we knew they were going to love the sport.

What’s the biggest lesson you learned staging fights and putting on events throughout the pandemic?

That we can literally do anything, make it through anything. I would have told you that last year too, but to make it through a global pandemic and have governments working against you, not with you changed everything. To have people not trying to help find a solution but trying to shut you down; the media trying to shut you down. I never pictured any of that.

It’s been 16 months since the UFC has put on a card at its home of T-Mobile Arena. What’s been the biggest change for the company since then?

It’s just been not knowing what’s next. Two years ago, you could have asked me any question, and I’m telling you what we’re doing here, here and here for the next year. It was, “We’re working on Africa. We’ll be there in the next six months,” but I just don’t know anymore. I know I can put on events in Texas. I can put on events in Florida. We did a killer event in Arizona. Vegas is opening back up. Maybe I can get into New York before the end of the year. Now I focus on what I do know.

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.