Dana White Proud of McGregor, But Doesn't Want Him to Box Again

By Keith Idec

LAS VEGAS – Dana White is proud of how well Conor McGregor boxed against the legend most experts expected to embarrass him.

UFC’s president still doesn’t want McGregor to participate in another boxing match. White was honest following McGregor’s 10th-round technical knockout loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena and stated that he wants the Irish superstar strictly to be a mixed martial artist moving forward.

“I would rather he did not [box again],” White said during the post-fight press conference. “This isn’t what he does. He’s a mixed martial artist, where he goes in and he fights and he uses all of his weapons. And tonight he was only allowed to use his hands. I think he did great tonight. I don’t think there’s anything else left to prove. I would rather he fight in mixed martial arts.”

White wouldn’t discuss when he expects McGregor to return to the Octagon.

The 29-year-old McGregor could earn more than $100 million from the Mayweather bout if it did as well on pay-per-view as White, Mayweather and others intimately involved in the promotion indicated after the fight. His guarantee for facing Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) in his boxing debut was $30 million, at least $20 million more than he is believed to have made for any one of his UFC fights.

The brash showman’s windfall for fighting Mayweather could lead UFC’s lightweight champion and biggest star to take an extended break from fighting of any kind.

“I’ve been back there with him pretty much this whole time, and we’re not talking about fighting tonight,” White said. “He put on a great performance. We’re not talking about fighting. You know how he is, man. When he’s ready, he’ll let me know.”

If McGregor did box again, Saturday night more than convinced White that he could succeed against lesser fighters than Mayweather. A grudge boxing match against former sparring partner Paulie Malignaggi interests McGregor, who won the first three rounds against Mayweather on the scorecard of judge Dave Moretti.

All three judges – Moretti (87-83), Guido Cavalleri (89-81) and Burt Clements (89-92) – had Mayweather way ahead when the fight was stopped. White watched a closer fight than that.

“We saw a fight tonight,” White said. “I don’t know if tonight was the best boxing you’ve ever seen. But you saw a fight. I mean, Conor was in here landing jabs on Floyd Mayweather. He was hitting him with right hands, he hit him with a big uppercut, hitting him with nice body shots. Conor McGregor looked damn good tonight to me. I don’t know what everybody else thinks, but I thought he looked awesome and I’m proud of him.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.