“It’s known, I care about Conor.”
Dana White and Conor McGregor have toasted to good business plenty of times over the past five years but their relationship appears to be at its worst point yet.
Although he labelled McGregor’s part in Thursday’s attack on a bus carrying UFC fighters as “disgusting”, White has steered clear of declaring categorically that he will never work with the Dubliner again.
McGregor’s reign as UFC lightweight champion will surely end this weekend if Khabib Nurmagomedov can defeat 11th ranked Al Iaquinta at UFC 223 in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. The Dagestani, who was the target in that bus attack, would claim the 155lbs strap by getting past the New York native, and part-time realtor.
White held court with several reporters at the UFC’s 25th anniversary press conference, on Friday, and spoke from the heart about McGregor.”We’ve got to get through this weekend and then I’ll sit down with my crew, [UFC chief executive] Ari Emanuel included, and figure out where to go from here,” he said.
The UFC president, who pushed to get McGregor signed up to a multi-fight contract with the promotion back in 2013, was then asked if he was worried about McGregor’s well-being and mental health.
“I don’t think that it’s not known but, yeah, I care for Conor,” White began. “This isn’t the…. Conor has always been had that type of… the reason he’s such a huge star is that he has this unbelievable personality. He’s very cocky and brash, and everything else, but this is just so over the top.
“It makes me feel like something is wrong. He was offended yesterday that I said that but, yes, I agree with you. This is a guy who’s acting like something is not right.”
White said the two priorities were to see what was going on with McGregor from a legal and personal stand-point.
“The guy is a big star and he’s been a big part of the UFC for five years now and…. yeah, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
White did confirm that McGregor had apologised for leaving women’s straw-weight champion Rose Namajunas, who was caught up in the bus attack, shaken up and for injuring fellow lightweight Michael Chiesa.
“Conor has got a lot of things he has to get through over the next year, I’d imagine,” said White. “A lot of work to do.”
