Dana White Addresses Conor McGregor’s Co-Promotion Ultimatum

Prior to his Aug. 26 boxing match against Floyd Mayweather, UFC lightweight champion said that he wanted to take on Mayweather and return to the Octagon before the end of the year.

After the fight, however, he admitted that his future was up in the air, and with less than two months left in the year, it’s beginning to look a lot less likely that he’ll fight again in 2017.

You never know with McGregor though.

In fact, he recently said that competing before the end of the year is possible, although he also said that he won’t return to the Octagon without being a co-promoter.

“I was promoter on the Mayweather fight, and we’re in current negotiations. I ain’t stepping in that octagon again unless I’m part owner of the whole setup. I’m a promoter,” he said at a Q&A last night (Via MMAJunkie).

Despite these claims, UFC President Dana White isn’t expecting a difficult negotiation process with the “Notorious” one.

“There’s always been as we go into negotiations with Conor. There’s always all kinds of crazy stuff out there,” White said at today’s UFC 217 press conference. “We always get deals done with Conor. Conor, he’s been easy to deal with and we’ll get it done.”

He also said that he’s ‘planning’ on the Irishman fighting again before the year’s end, while also addressing McGregor’s co-promotion requests :

“Yeah. We’re planning on it. He said he wants to, and we want him to. So we’ll see what happens,” White added when discussing the matter with TMZ. “The kid wants some money, the kid wants some stuff. And if there’s anyone out there that’s worth it, it’s Conor McGregor. We’ve always figured it out with him and we’ll figure it out again.”

If McGregor does indeed fight again this year, the most likely landing spot would be at Dec. 30’s UFC 219, which is set to take place in Las Vegas. As far as an opponent goes, it’s expected that he’ll take on interim 155-pound champion Tony Ferguson in his return bout.