Earlier this summer, when Conor McGregor made the jump over to boxing for a superfight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., he did it with the blessing of Dana White and the UFC. What resulted was one of the most lucrative fights in sports history and now, White may be regretting the decision.

With the amount of money generated by the superfight, and with the perceived ease of opposition a novice boxer like McGregor offers some of boxing’s biggest names, many top-shelf pugilists have begun calling out McGregor for their turn at showing him the ropes. Then last week, rumors began circulating that the biggest of those names, Manny Pacquiao, had begun negotiations with McGregor’s team for a fight in 2018. This came as news to White who said at the post-fight press conference for UFC Fresno that if the rumors were true, Pacquiao would be hearing from the UFC’s lawyers.

“That would be weird because he’s under contract with us,” said White. “If that’s true, I will be suing Manny Pacquiao and whoever’s representing him, so I’m assuming that’s not true. Yes, [Conor’s next fight is in the UFC].”

White isn’t the only promoter who doesn’t think much of the rumors. Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, also answered questions on Saturday evening after the Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Guillermo Rigondeaux boxing match, saying that Pacquiao’s people reached out to McGregor months ago but that nothing has come from it at the moment (via Fight Hub TV) and that he isn’t particularly interested in doing the fight.

“Is it true that Pacquiao reached out to McGregor? Yes, but it’s old news,” said Arum.

“I would do it for Manny but for me, if I promoted that fight, I would tell everybody up front, ‘Guess what, it’s not a f**king fight. If you want a spectacle, you can watch it.’”

Arum’s disinterest in promoting a crossover superfight between Pacquiao and McGregor could stem in part from his dislike of White. White and Arum have gone back and forth in the public forum for years and this weekend was no exception as Arum took the opportunity to take shots at White for his recent remarks that the UFC is looking at promoting boxing in the future as well.

“Who gives a s**t about White?” said Arum (via Fight Hub TV). “He’s a piece of crap. It’s an acknowledgment how strong boxing is that he has a UFC that’s cratering and he needs boxing to save himself.

“For me, that would be great. If Dana White started promoting boxing it would be terrific because it would show what we have now proven, that boxing is not an old man’s sport, that our demographics are young. We’ve been up against them twice and we’re up against them now for the third time but a level playing field, free television ESPN and free television FS1, and when it’s free . . . and we’ve got a level playing field, we beat the pants off them.”

It was just a month ago that White called Arum “literally the biggest piece of s**t in all of sports” so it should come as no surprise that White didn’t have much patience for Arum’s latest attack on him, though he did at least end his response with something of an olive branch.

“We’ll see Bob,” said White. “We’ll see at the end. Bob’s the same guy that said that the UFC would never work and the UFC was losing ‘oodles’ of money, whatever the f**k that means. I don’t know what ‘oodles of money’ means. Look at what we’ve done and look at where we are. Come on.

“At the end of the day, we’ll see who stands where when the smoke clears and the dust settles. I’ll give it to him though, for a f**king 95-year-old dude, this guy’s still pretty feisty. I’ll give him that. I’m impressed.”

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MUST-READ STORIES

Results. Brian Ortega choked out Cub Swanson and the rest of the UFC Fresno results.

More Results. Rafael Carvalho knocked out Alessio Sakara and all Bellator 190 results.

Even More Results. Jennifer Maia retains flyweight title and all Invicta 26 results.

Death. Cub Swanson said he “felt like I was going to die” in Brian Ortega’s choke.

Deals. Dana White says he “expected” Georges St-Pierre to vacate the middleweight title.

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VIDEO STEW

Watch Robbie Lawler do work ahead of his return this weekend.

Invicta highlights.

LFA highlights.

The pair of Bellator KOs.

Sakuraba and Josh Barnett have started a new grappling league that looks cool.

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LISTEN UP

Luke Thomas. Post-fight discussion of all the weekend’s biggest combat.

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Classy guys.

Truth teller.

Luka Jelcic was very upset about how his fight with Brandon Girtz went.

This kid was the talk of Twitter yesterday and a lot of fighters are showing him love.

Tony wants back in around March-April.

Overeem is now working with SBG Ireland.

GSP flexing.

FWIW, I thought the new guy was solid.

Friends.

Outrageous submission.

KO corner.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

N/A.

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TODAY IN MMA HISTORY

2010: Georges St-Pierre dominated Josh Koscheck in their rematch, retaining his welterweight title and breaking Koscheck’s orbital bone in the process at UFC 124.

2015: Frankie Edgar knocked out Chad Mendes at The Ultimate Fighter 22 Finale.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Brian Ortega is some kind of talent. There is a very good case to be made that he hasn’t won a round yet in the UFC, but it doesn’t matter because he is an absolutely lethal finisher. Cub made the tiniest of mistakes and that was all she wrote. Personally, I don’t think he’d beat Max Holloway but with that kind of lightning-in-a-bottle finishing talent, maybe he could shock everyone. I damn sure wouldn’t mind seeing him try anyway.

And we’re back for yet another fight week as the UFC keeps barrelling towards the end of the year, but this one is one on hell of a card, arguably the best non-PPV of the year. That’s right, it’s Brutal Bobby Law time everyone. Get hype.

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EXIT POLL

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