‘He Likes To F— With Everybody’

Calm down, everyone. Conor McGregor won’t be fighting Justin Gaethje or Floyd Mayweather next.

Dana White was back in front of the press on Tuesday night after a few weeks on vacation, and the UFC president had a lot to say about all the recent combat sports drama in the UFC and beyond.

Following the season 7 start of White’s Contender Series show, he gave an update on Conor McGregor’s return to the cage. McGregor has been out of action since July 2021 with a bad leg break injury. A coaching gig opposite Michael Chandler on The Ultimate Fighter is supposed to lead to a fight between the two sometime near the end of the year, but “The Notorious” has been talking about fighting Justin Gaethje instead.

Or Dustin Poirier, or Nate Diaz, or Leon Edwards, or Floyd Mayweather. Basically anyone except “Iron” Mike. That’s all just mental warfare, according to Dana White. McGregor’s next opponent is “definitely Chandler.”

“He likes to f— with everybody,” White said. “You know what I mean? Especially his opponent, or possible opponents.”

“I talked to Conor, either yesterday or the day before, and yeah, he’s ready to fight,” White said. “I said, ‘Listen, get in shape and let’s figure this out.’”

McGregor has spent more time on social media pumping new Forged Irish Stout than he has preparing for a fight. And why not, when the stout market is valued at over $10 billion dollars. While other fighters are just beginning to sniff at eight figure payouts, McGregor is chasing an eleven figure nut. At this point he’s kind of dumb to put his time and effort into cage fighting, to be honest.

His booze business is tied to his personal brand, though, and if Conor isn’t fighting then people aren’t paying as much attention to everything else he’s selling. That certainly gives him more than enough reason to tease fights without actually competing.

Will McGregor step back into the cage in 2023? White has said there’s “a lot of business that needs to be handled” to make it happen. It’s looking more and more unlikely as the weeks go by and Conor remains outside the USADA drug testing program. Will he fight eventually? The Mac insists he will, but as Dana White said: he likes to f— with everybody.