mma / News

Dan Hardy Says Conor McGregor/UFC Dustup is About Respect

April 28, 2016 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas

Dan Hardy spoke with MMAjunkie about the drama between Conor McGregor and the UFC that led to McGregor being pulled from UFC 200 for not fulfilling his PR obligations. Some highlights are below:

On the Conor McGregor/UFC situation: “I think it’s about respect more than anything. I think that both parties are feeling disrespected – Conor, by not being given the leeway that he wants on his training, and Dana and the UFC feeling like he’s not holding up his end of the bargain by not coming in and filming the commercial. A part of that is him digging his heels in and saying he needs to be more focussed on training than the PR stuff. I get it. I think his statement was very well written, and I think he stated his case very well. When he spoke about that a time comes when you need to stop handing out fliers, I think he’s feeling the pressure of that loss and the pressure of the fight that’s coming up. But, at the same time, the UFC are trying to make this the biggest event in their history. It’s UFC 200. They’re doing three events in one week, and they know how important it is for people to know that McGregor is on the card. He really is key to the pay-per-view sales. As important as it is for Nate to be there, really it’s the fight with Conor that people want to see. Nate wants that as well, so it’s a really awkward situation.”

On his own experience in getting the spotlight: “You’ve got to bear in mind that everyone who works for the UFC feels that their job is the most important in the UFC. Everyone who is working on those shoots have a schedule to keep, shots they’ve got to get by a particular time, and they were putting pressure on me. And you kind of feel like ‘Hold on, I’ve got the biggest fight of my life coming up and I’m being pulled in all these different directions.’”

On learning from Georges St-Pierre: “I asked (St-Pierre) afterwards, and he told me that he had learned over his time fighting with the UFC to pull back a little bit otherwise the UFC are going to keep chasing you for what they need. There does come a time when a fighter has to pull back a little bit and get a bit of time for themselves. Conor is doing that right now, but possibly the way in which its been done is what’s upset the UFC. I think it went to social media a bit sooner than the UFC would have liked and that’s what’s caused the rift. It’s the difference between a long term and short term perspective. At the moment, Conor McGregor is the biggest thing so the low-hanging fruit is to keep rolling him out and keep maintaining that interest in him until it is no longer.”

Om McGregor: “The more time he spent doing PR, eight to 12 hours a day, with cameras and people around him asking the questions, the more that part of himself is going to take over. And I think that’s what happened and this is ultimately ego. His brashness, the way he presents himself, the way he dresses, the way he sells these fights, it’s ego out of control. But that’s why people love it, it’s fascinating. But the result is that it eventually does take over, and I think that’s what happened in the Nate Diaz fight. He kept throwing that big left hand because he expected him to go down, because he’s bought into that hype himself. He said he was prepared to fight anybody at any moment, so when the opponent changed, there was pressure there that he put on himself by the things that he said, that forced him into a situation where he was fighting Nate Diaz.”