The divisive Irish superstar stunned the MMA world when he tweeted he was quitting the sport at just 27-years old. Hours after the tweet, White pulled McGregor from his upcoming UFC 200 blockbuster against Nate Diaz.
However, the UFC boss is confident the Dublin-native’s three-year stay with the promotion has not come to an end.
“Conor McGregor had basically said that he didn’t want to come to Las Vegas,” White told “The Herd” with Colin Cowherd. “We had a tour planned. We were going to start in Las Vegas, we were then going to go to Stockton and then New York and then he could go back to Iceland where he is right now.
“He said ‘I don’t want to do it, I don’t want to come’ and I was basically saying you have to come. In the history of us owning the UFC, there’s been one time that a guy hasn’t shown up for his press conference and it was (Nick) Diaz versus GSP (Georges St-Pierre) and I pulled (Nick) Diaz from the fight.
“You can’t not show up to promote your fight. You can’t do it. That’s where we ended up.”
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White is now actively searching for a replacement to fight Diaz. Press duties for the event are due to begin tomorrow, with a kick-off press conference and a three-day promotional shoot scheduled.
The UFC were expected to shell out $10 million on promotional expenses and White said the demands on McGregor’s time were reasonable, though, he did reveal the champ’s manager had asked to reschedule the press obligations.
“They were asking if we could move all this stuff to May but we can’t move it, this stuff is in motion,” White added. “Everybody talks about how I coddle Conor and I baby Conor and he can do what he wants. We do give him a lot of leeway because he delivers but he wasn’t planning on delivering this weekend and I had to pull him.”
White was adamant their relationship has not been damaged and said he could still fight at UFC 200 – if he was willing to come to Las Vegas this week. He said: “Yeah if he called me after this interview, we’d probably still do it.”
