mma / News

Dana White: UFC Will Have No Involvement in Mayweather vs. McGregor

June 15, 2017 | Posted by Larry Csonka

– On last night’s edition of UFC Tonight, Dana White spoke about the Mayweather vs. McGregor announcement, the UFC’s involvement and how big the fight can be…

Dana White on details of the fight: “It’ll be at 154 pounds, 12 rounds in a boxing ring and take place August 26 at the T-Mobile Arena. It’ll be 10-ounce gloves. Showtime has the deal with Floyd.”

White on if this will be the biggest fight in combat sports ever: “It’s the biggest fight in combat sports and biggest payday ever. All sides are happy with the deal.”

White on if McGregor will fight in the UFC again: “He’s one of these guys, the reason he has so much success is, other than winning fights, he’s the guy willing to fight anyone at any time. He’s telling me he’ll knock Floyd out and then he’ll turn around and fight again in the UFC before the end of the year.”

White on if this will break the PPV record: “I think this breaks the record in US, the UK, Australia and Canada, too. Floyd vs. Pacquiao did four million and rising, because with a pay-per-view, the buys keep rolling in for years.”

White on Oscar De La Hoya’s negative comments about this fight: “Why do you go out and tell people to not buy the fight? That’s crazy. I’m a fight fan and when you’re a fight fan, you want to see a great fight. We’ve got a ton of great fights coming up at the end of this year. GSP is coming back, Jon Jones is going to fight, and boxing has great fights coming, too. It’s a great end of the year for fight fans. I encourage everyone to watch the fights. And you should probably buy GGG vs Canelo, too. That will be a great fight. Oscar is out of his mind telling people to not buy this. I’ve known him for a long time, but what an absolute straight-up hater.”

White on what shoulder programming will be produced to promote the fight: “Showtime is going to put on shows leading up to the fight because they have Mayweather under contract. We’ll do Embedded series leading up to it and we’re coming up with other plans on what we’ll do.”

White on the UFC’s involvement in the fight: “None. Mayweather Promotions will build the card and Showtime will do the production. When you have great fights, the money comes with all that. The one thing I care about, that when people walk away from spending money on a night, you walk away satisfied. Conor McGregor will go in, go after Floyd and will try to knock him out. And if that’s the case, the money is part of the deal.”