Dana White: Conor McGregor leaks private messages ‘one of the dirtiest things you can do’

UFC President Dana White appears to be unhappy with Conor McGregor for publicly sharing screenshots of a private conservation between the couple, describing it as “one of the dirtiest things you can do.”

On Friday, McGregor posted images on his social media taken from his phone of an exchange with White in February, in which the Irishman highlighted his willingness to fight multiple times this year.

In the messages, McGregor can be seen discussing a possible fight with Justin Gaethje, while also expressing his reluctance to serve as a stand-in for the Khabib Nurmagomedov-Tony Ferguson showdown should the fighter pull out of UFC 249 scheduled at the time. . McGregor has competed only once this year, in January, and in June he announced that he was retiring from wrestling.

On Sunday after UFC 253 in Abu Dhabi, White was asked about the leaked conversation, to which he replied, “Listen, I’ve had people blowing me up from left to right. Everybody here knows, this is some man code. It’s something you don’t do. It’s one of the dirtiest things you can do. “

White seemed to make a particular exception to the Diego Sanchez section of the conversation, in which White turned down McGregor’s request for the fight because, in his words, the UFC would lose his promoter license if he were booked.

“Diego Sánchez was there, in a private conversation he was having with Conor,” White said. “When you’re the No. 2 or 3 player in the world and you tell me you want to fight, but you want to fight Diego Sánchez, 39, in a main event in Los Angeles. Angels … you know. “

White was also asked about McGregor’s apparent upcoming crossover fight with Manny Pacquiao. The former UFC two-division champion tweeted on Friday that he would face the Filipino boxer in a boxing match in the Middle East later this year.

However, even though the management company behind the fight recounted The National which the UFC fully supported, White played directly Sunday, saying he “had no idea” if the fight would actually materialize.

In contrast, White was extremely complimentary of Israel Adesanya, who prevailed in the main event of UFC 253 against previously undefeated Paulo Costa to retain his middleweight belt. Adesanya, who went 20-0, knocked out the Brazilian in the second round with a tremendously dominant performance. White had previously said that the match would be the fight of the year.

“Too much for the fight of the year, but domination of the year,” he said. “If you look at every fight Costa has had, he comes out and chases people like they owed him money. And I think he landed a punch.

“Adesanya just went to work, took it apart, piece by piece. And it made it look really easy. But you can’t be disappointed when you have someone as talented as Adesanya and she comes out and enforces her will and literally dismantles such a good and tough guy as Costa. Adesanya closed it down tonight and absolutely put up a clinic and destroyed it. You can’t be upset about that. “

Meanwhile, White said that a fight between Khamzat Chimaev and Leon Edwards is not scheduled, as reported, while confirming that he is likely to pit Jorge Masvidal against Colby Covington rather than a rematch with Nate Diaz.