Dana White was well-prepared for the inevitable Conor McGregor question at the UFC 217 pre-fight press conference.
Conor McGregor left it until the week of arguably the biggest UFC card of the year headlined by Michael Bisping vs Georges St-Pierre.
At the Irish premiere for his documentary ‘Notorious,’ he told the crowd that he would only be returning to the UFC under one condition.
“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.”
McGregor is a master of utilising the media to its full promotional potential. He sent that message in a bottle out to sea with the knowledge that it would find its intended target and sure enough, Dana White was asked about this demand on Thursday night.
“As we go into negotiations with Conor, there’s always all kinds of crazy stuff out there. We always get deals done with Conor. You know Conor…”
At this point, White was interrupted by a heckler in the crowd. The man was clearly a fan of interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson, as he shouted ‘El Cucuy’s phrase “defend or vacate!”.
“(Smiles) Conor has eh, you know, he’s been easy to deal with and we’ll get it done… alright, I am going to get all this stuff out of here. We’re going to square them off here for face-offs. Thank you guys so much We’ll see you on Saturday.”
He wrapped that one up pretty damn quickly. Check out the moment in the video embedded below from around the 26:42 mark.
