Dana White Claims Reports of McGregor vs. Pacquiao Are Not True

As previously reported, boxing champion Manny Pacquiao told AFP that he and UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor’s camp had initial talks about setting up a high-profile boxing fight. MMAjunkie spoke to UFC President Dana White following UFC Fight Night 23 in Fresno, California, and White claimed those reports are not true.

White commented on the reports, “That would be weird, because (McGregor’s) under contract with us. If that’s true, I will be suing Manny Pacquiao and whoever is representing him.”

White was also told about comments made by Top Rank boxing promoter Bob Arum, who recently took a shot at White during the Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux boxing match in New York. Arum stated on the UFC President, “Who gives a s— with White, he’s a piece of s—. He’s got a UFC that’s cratering and he needs boxing to save himself.”

White responded to Arum later, saying: “You’ll see, Bob. We’ll see at the end. Bob’s the same guy who said the UFC would never work, and the UFC was loosing ‘oodles’ of money, whatever the (expletive) ‘oodles of money’ means. Look at what we’ve done and look at where we are. I mean, come on. At the end of the day, we’ll see who stands where when the smoke clears and the dust settles.”

He added, “I’ll give it to him, though. For a (expletive) 95-year-old dude, this guy’s pretty feisty, man. I’ll give it to him. I’ll give him that.”

Currently, Conor McGregor has no fight lined up in the UFC as the champion of the lightweight division. His only fight this year was his boxing pay-per-view match with Floyd Mayweather. Since then, he’s mainly been in the headlines for a number of public incidents, including allegedly punching the father of a member of an Irish mob and also physically slapping a Bellator MMA official at a recent event in Ireland.

White and Arum have had a longstanding feud and war of words going back many years. Last night’s UFC event was held at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California. The main card was shown on FS1. Prelims were shown on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass. You can check out 411mania’s full results and coverage of the event RIGHT HERE.