Finally, the UFC President, Dana White has decided to address the elephant in the room, revealing his thoughts about the ongoing dilemma of whether Conor McGregor will return to the octagon. Including both the marquee superstars, Jon Jones and ‘The Notorious’ in his speech, Dana White recently made an honest admission about the lingering uncertainty.
Divulging his thoughts to Jim Rome of “Rome, The Jim Rome Show,” White said,
“Conor (McGregor) is going to be 36 in July and yeah he has got plenty of money and you know I don’t ever look at it, I don’t ever think that guys like that – Jon Jones, who knows, maybe he’ll fight again, maybe he won’t, Conor McGregor maybe he’ll fight again, maybe he won’t- you never know with some of the guys that get to that level, you never know if you”re ever going to see them again.”
“Jon Jones. Maybe he’ll fight again. Maybe he won’t. Conor McGregor. Maybe he’ll fight again. Maybe he won’t.“ @danawhite on the possibility of two UFC icons never stepping in the octagon again. pic.twitter.com/aWaFnFtWcw
— Jim Rome (@jimrome) June 17, 2024
Although uncharacteristic of him, Dana White made a recent admission that has got the community more anxious than ever. With both of its major superstars out, sidelined with injuries (Jon Jones with a pectoral muscle tear and Conor McGregor with an undisclosed injury) the promotion is in a rut.
White also claimed that once fighters get to a certain level, you won’t see them ever again. McGregor for instance is a millionaire now with a plush happening bar in Dublin and his whiskey, Proper 12, selling like hotcakes. In addition to these revelations, White was also blunt and honest about Khamzat Chimaev’s precarious position.
Dana White opens up about the Khamzat Chimaev situation after giving his take on Jones and Conor McGregor
Khamzat Chimaev aka ‘Borz’ took the promotion by storm when he steamrolled through the competition. Gilbert Burns, Li Jingliang, Kevin Holland, and Kamaru Usman all fell prey to the Chechen wolf. However, his activity over the past few years has considerably declined, mainly due to his health.
In fact, Chimaev has competed a total of only four times since 2021! Acknowledging his last-minute pullout from UFC Suadi Arabia against Robert Whittaker, Dana White shared his thoughts with Jim Rome, saying,
“The problem is we really don’t know. Every time this guy gets close to a fight, I saw video footage of him on the ground violently ill. He was hospitalized again. He hadn’t trained for three or four days or five days, I don’t know exactly what the number was but we could not put him into a fight next weekend.”
The Chechen like many others around the world was affected by the virus during the pandemic and even after his recovery he still had some complications. Now, merely a week before his bout at UFC’s maiden event in Saudi, Chimaev had to call it quits owing to his degrading health condition.
