Is Dana White About to Sabotage Mayweather vs. McGregor?

What a wild journey this Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor boxing fight has taken, hasn’t it? A year ago, the idea of the multi-time boxing champion facing the fiery UFC champion seemed like a crazy pipe dream.

Now? Well, it still seems pretty crazy but it’s crazy that is currently making it’s way to the bank. Let’s just hope that it knows how to get to the bank, and that the bank is still open when it gets there.

Does anybody know what the bank’s hours are? Do they close early on Saturdays? I probably should have Googled it before getting in the car…

It’s a fight that makes zero sense from a sporting perspective, with the undefeated boxing legend squaring off against a man who has multiple KOs on his record and no boxing fights, but it’s one that makes all the sense in the world as far as spectacle goes.

Also, money. Lots and lots of money.

It doesn’t need to be explained anymore. It’s the two most popular names in their respective sports and they want to fight. That’s all it takes for everyone and their mother to want to see this fight. There are thousands of reports and opinions floating out here talking about this fight, many from people who don’t follow any combat sports, and we still don’t even know if it’s going to happen.

If the fight does go down, it’s going to have every goddamn pair of eyes on the planet watching it. Seriously, there’s no way it doesn’t make all the money in the world. I don’t see how anyone who has a financial stake in this fight taking place isn’t busy doing everything they can to make it a reality.

But not everyone wants to see this fight and it may be that there are people with a financial interest who don’t want it either. There may be people against the fight, and not for the reason you might think.

It’s clear that Floyd and Conor both want this fight. They’ve been sniping at each other in interviews and on social media forever now. Floyd came out of retirement specifically so he could fight McGregor. Conor has been focusing on his boxing, while waiting for Baby McGregor to arrive, in preparation for the fight. Neither man seems to have any interest in doing anything else except this fight. I’m sure the negotiations are going to get pretty ugly between these two but it seems clear they are willing to work towards a bout agreement.

The fight’s biggest obstacle up to this point has seemingly been the UFC. Conor is, of course, beholden to the UFC and being under contract to them means they would need to approve of any fight he wants to make with Floyd.

From the start, UFC has been resistant to allowing the fight to happen. That is, unless Floyd was looking to become a UFC fighter, which would be a helluva trip, wouldn’t it? I’m sure he’d love going from making $100 million a fight to getting Reebok payout scraps. Yep. Sounds worth it to me.

That seemed like it would be the end of it until the start of this year, when Dana White changed his tune and said that, not only did he think Mayweather vs. McGregor would happen, but that he would take an active part in making the fight happen, as a favor to his favorite fighter, The Irishman that Lays the Golden Payperview Buyrates.

So, with the UFC now looking to help the cause, it seems like that’s it. It’s on. Dana said he’d talk to Conor, they’d come to an agreement, and then he’d begin negotiations with Floyd. There’s nothing to stop the fight from happening (well, aside from the same kinds of provisional roadblocks that took Mayweather vs. Pacquiao 5 years to finally happen).

Thank you, UFC. We know how much you love controlling your fighters, despite the fact you won’t make them employees and give them benefits or better pay, and hate co-promotion, so it really means a lot you’d put that aside to do what really matters: make all the money in the known universe.

Then again, is that what UFC is really doing here? Are they getting involved to make the fight happen or are they getting involved because it’s the easiest way to keep the fight from happening?

That’s something I’ve had on my mind since reading the interview Stephen Espinoza, Executive Vice President of Showtime Sports, gave last week, noting that the fight is at a standstill, despite all the positive reports we’ve been getting over the last few months, which gave the impression this was all but a done deal.

Now, I don’t know how close Espinoza is to the situation but, considering that Floyd has had a contract with the network for a few years, it appears he’s going to be involved in some stage of the negotiations, especially if Showtime PPV becomes the platform to air the fight.

Even if he knows nothing about the situation, though, he still raises a good point in wondering if UFC really wants this fight to happen, speculating there could be fear that, if the fight does go down and Conor nets himself an 8 or 9 figure payday, he may not return to MMA. He’s already threatened retirement before. Maybe he’ll do it again for real this time.

The notion of Conor moving on from MMA, or fighting in general, after getting the Floyd fight has already been postulated on by people close to Conor, such as his coach John Kavanagh and his training partner Gunnar (GUNNI!) Neslon, so it certainly seems like it’s not outside the realm of possibility.

As far as his fighting career goes, there’s really not a whole lot else for Conor to do. He came into the sport with a checklist of accomplishments and he’s checked them all off, from winning regional championships to debuting in the UFC to headlining a card in Ireland to winning a UFC Championship to winning a second UFC Championship to headlining the best selling Payperview in UFC history.

He’s lived his life chasing dreams and, with his fists and his mouth, has managed to turn every one of those dreams into another addition to his trophy case. At this point, the only thing he hasn’t done (besides defend a championship, which we all know is not happening) is conquer another sport and make an attempt at selling the biggest Payperview ever. We all know both those goals are very lofty but I see no reason why he shouldn’t make a go at it if he can.

I would think the UFC would be thrilled to see him try to accomplish those goals as well, especially considering it was their willingness to let him walk all over their promotion that allowed him to become as big as he is. They can’t forget that, while they didn’t create this monster, they sure did foster it and nurture it and help give it the promotional leverage it needed to allow it to do whatever it wanted.

It’s been a boon to the UFC for letting him get this big, as 3 major Conor fights last year produced their biggest year on record, but it comes at a cost and that cost is going to be Conor becoming too big for the UFC.

If UFC was hoping to make a lot of money off Conor for a long time, they probably should have thought the last few years through a lot more because, if Conor gets the Floyd fight, the only way they’ll be able to keep him is by offering him the same amount of money for MMA fights, which we all know isn’t going to happen.

At this point, the only MMA fight I could see him taking is either against Tyron Woodley, or whoever is holding the UFC Welterweight Championship, just so Conor can say he won three UFC titles, or against Georges St-Pierre, so he can try and beat a legend and proclaim himself King of Canada, but even then I would still think Conor would demand a hefty paycheck for those fights if he gets Floyd first.

Maybe UFC is thinking that, if Conor can’t get the Floyd fight and the payday that goes along with it, he’ll be willing to come back and take a UFC fight. Is it reasonable to think that’s what could happen?

Honestly I don’t think so. At this point, I think Conor is done with MMA whether he gets the Floyd fight or not. I could definitely see a UFC return being more likely if he doesn’t get the Floyd fight (unless he gets the Floyd fight and is beaten so badly he takes an MMA fight to attempt to save face, but I don’t think that is very likely either) but the odds say we’ve seen him step into The Octagon for the last time.

Still, Conor is the UFC’s cash cow and, in a 2017 that is way lagging behind the financial benchmarks that 2016 set, I could see them desperately doing anything in their power to keep him around.

Well, unless it’s just Dana White and Dana White alone who doesn’t want the Floyd/Conor fight to happen.

It would make more sense if it was just Dana who doesn’t want the fight to go down than the current owners of the UFC, WME-IMG, a talent agency who not only is looking for ways to make back the $4 billion they spent to purchase the UFC, but also seem like the types who would look to profit off the assets in their portfolio however they can. They won’t care about trivialities like cross promotion. Not when one of their talents is about to be part of one of the biggest sporting events in modern history.

Maybe Dana is still against the fight but WME-IMG is in favor of it and Ari Emanuel is the one telling Dana to go do everything he can to get the fight made. Maybe Dana is acting under the guise of working for their best interests to support the fight and he’ll publicly say he’s going to get it done but, instead, will find ways to stick a subtle wrench in the works and cause everything to fall apart, allowing him to still say he tried as he’s finding other people to pass the blame onto. Then he can have his Conor all to himself again and the two of them can run away to Lorenzo Fertitta’s Italian villa where they can live happily ever after.

Clearly, I’m not saying any of that is true but if the fight doesn’t materialize, especially with Dana F’in White on the job, would it surprise anyone to find out that’s how it went down?

Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor is a big fight. There’s a lot to gain for a lot of people but there’s also a lot to lose. The question for Dana and the UFC is if what they will gain (exposure, lots of money) will make up for what they are likely to lose (Conor). It’s a question they will need to answer before this fight has any realistic chance of happening, and I hope it’s a question they answer and soon.

It’s either that or we can just wait for new UFC President Al Iaquinta to make the fight. He seems like the kind of guy who knows how to get things done.

Rage on, Mr. President. Rage on.

Evan Zivin has been writing for 411 MMA since May of 2013. Evan loves the sport, and likes to takes a lighthearted look at the world of MMA in his writing…usually.