UFC President Dana White has said Conor McGregor will lose his featherweight title unless he clears up the confusion over his decision to “retire young”, writes Stephen Barry.
Having pulled McGregor from the UFC 200 card, White says the UFC featherweight champion’s belt could be on the line between Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar on July 9.
Naturally, if McGregor has indeed retired as his sudden and cryptic “retire young” tweet hinted, then he will relinquish the belt.
But White also said he believes that McGregor is not retiring and will fight again in the UFC during the next year.
If Conor McGregor retires, who fights for his vacant belt? @danawhite reveals the matchup. #TheHerdhttps://t.co/KikmB8A5E3
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) April 20, 2016
Talking to Fox Sports 1’s ‘The Herd’, White said, “The thing is that Conor needs to clear up this whole retirement thing and clear it up fast.
“If he’s retired, then at UFC 200 Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar are fighting for the vacant title.”
However White added that he would seek to salvage the fight if McGregor rang him up soon.
“If he called me after this interview we’d probably still do it.
“The problem with this whole thing is that you have to be here to promote your fight and you have to shoot this commercial.
“We’re spending $10million in promotion for UFC 200 and all that money is all in motion.
“You just can’t do this. I don’t care who you are, or how big you are.”
I have decided to retire young.
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 19, 2016
Thanks for the cheese.
Catch ya's later.
Despite the losses caused by McGregor’s decision, White has insisted that the relationship between McGregor and the UFC isn’t broken.
“Our relationship isn’t damaged at all.
“Conor was making a lot of money for this fight. Understand this, it’s not like I’m asking Conor to come out and do something none of the other fighters are doing. All of the other fighters are showing up and doing it.
“And it’s not like this is three weeks before his fight, his fight isn’t for three months.
“So Conor, for whatever reason, freaked out about this. He’s a reasonable guy, he’s a smart guy and he likes money, so this is weird.”
