UFC News: Dana White Dismisses Pacquiao Vs. McGregor Possibility Because He's 'Not Doing Business With Arum'
Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White quickly dismissed the possibility of a bout between worldwide boxing champ Manny Pacquiao and mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor because he is not fond of doing business with Bob Arum.
Arum is the founder and chief executive officer of Top Rank, Pacquiao's promoter.
Now that the McGregor and Mayweather Jr. fight is slowly becoming impossible, fans are thinking that maybe the second top boxer in the world would say "yes." Unfortunately, as fast as Pacquiao's camp welcomed the idea, White quickly dismissed the possibilities.
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Pacquiao said a conditional yes but it's no go for White
Yahoo! Sports quoted White's response to the pitched Pacquiao-McGregor fight: "Listen, I love Manny Pacquiao. But I don't love Bob Arum. You can tell Arum to save his money and not make any calls over here because we aren't doing business with him."
On the other hand, Philippines-based news source Interaksyon.com quoted a spokesman for the boxing champ and senator, expressing they are open to facing McGregor but with one condition: "If McGregor will fight me in boxing, why not? But not in MMA. MMA is much different than boxing."
Why the possibility of a McGregor-Mayweather Jr. fight is slowly fading
Meanwhile, the exchange between McGregor and Mayweather Jr. has been going on for quite some time now. However, when the boxing and mixed martial worlds tried to set up a fight for the two, money became an issue and it was not surprising.
White had earlier made attempts to let the boxing and MMA world collide and reportedly offered Mayweather Jr. a $25 million contract to do the gig with McGregor. But as everybody expected, the amount was not enough.
As for Mayweather Jr., on his appearance at ESPN's First Take earlier this month, the undefeated pound for pound boxing champion revealed why the arrangements did not push through, saying (via Bad Left Hook): "They knew what my number is. My number was a guaranteed $100M ... we're the A-side."
The undefeated boxing champ added that his camp is willing to offer McGregor $15 million even when they are certain that the UFC champ has not even made as much as $10 million ever in a single fight in the octagon.
"Conor McGregor keep telling everyone he wants the fight. Let's make it happen...Dana White, The UFC, Let's make it happen. Bring him over to the boxing world and I'll show him what it's like," Mayweather Jr. said. He wonders how McGregor's camp can "talk about $20-$30M if he's never even made $8-$9M?"
