A month ago, UFC president Dana White said that he was going to focus on making the Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather superfight happen because he wanted to “do this for Conor” in consideration of the many times McGregor has stepped up to help out the UFC. But just because White says something, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.

Speaking with Colin Cowherd yesterday on The Herd, White discussed the difficulties that exist in making the superfight happen, saying that the fight is nowhere close to being set, and that eventually, he could wash his hands of everything.

“It’s not getting close at all. I knew that this thing was gonna be a nightmare to get done, if it can even be done. We’ll find out. Obviously, both guys want to fight each other, but what’s the deal? Can the deal be done? That’s the question.

“It’s not even Mayweather. It’s not even Mayweather. It’s definitely both sides. It’s not just Mayweather, it’s both sides of this thing are gonna be hard to get done. And absolutely, there’s gonna come a point where I’m done [clears his hands]. This isn’t what I do. This isn’t my business and I’m definitely gonna walk away.”

The intricacies involved in a boxing match of this scale are numerous and Mayweather has been a notoriously tough negotiator. With Mayweather’s insistence that he’s “the A-side” and the specifics of a purse split being hotly contested, the bout still requires a substantial amount of work. On top of that, the biggest current star in boxing, Canelo Alvarez, just announced a match against Gennady Golovkin for this September, a date that was nominally being targeted for a potential Mayweather-McGregor bout. Alvarez vs. Golovkin is the biggest boxing match in several years and basically ensures that McGregor-Mayweather won’t be fighting until the end of the year.

With the many roadblocks still standing in the way of the fight, it’s fair to wonder if White’s intention to “walk away” is coming sooner than predicted. And while White insists that he still wants to make the fight happen as a boon to McGregor, he insists that “the right deal” must be struck because, really, it doesn’t matter to him whether the fight happens or not.

“Listen, if it doesn’t work for me personally - either way, it doesn’t matter to me. I know that these two guys want to fight. I’ve said many times I respect Conor and I’d like to do this fight for him, but it’s got to be the right deal. We have to get the right deal done or it’s not going to happen, because at the end of the day, this isn’t what I do, the UFC is what I do, and I should be focusing on that, and not a boxing match that - obviously, a lot of people want to see it, there’s a lot of interest in it, but it’s not really what I do.”

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MUST-READ STORIES

Dana Almighty. Anderson Silva rips “almighty” Dana White for UFC 212 situation.

Flyweight. The UFC officially adds a women’s 125 pound division with a champion to be crowned from TUF 26.

Oh no. Matt Hughes admits he “didn’t want to retire in the first place.”

Ultimatum. Kelvin Gastelum says he’ll never fight in Brazil again after marijuana issues.

Changes. The Brazilian sports court says Kelvin Gastelum changed his story about his failed drug test.

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VIDEO STEW

Embedded 2 and 3.

Yair on TMZ.

Joanna on TMZ.

TTTHS.

Another episode of Mousasi’s doc.

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LISTEN UP

Beatdown. 211 discussion along with what Hall of Fame qualifications should be.

The Brit Pack. UFC 211 talk and listener Q&A.

UFC Unfiltered. Stipe Miocic comes on ahead of UFC 211.

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Anderson.

Trying to get that fight.

But this one might be more likely.

Trying to get that fight.

So say we all.

Will never cease to amaze me that fighters think boxing is the model to follow. Whole thread here where Quarry and Fitch talk about stuff.

A bit much but it was an excellent fight.

Yair is gonna make himself a real star if he keeps doing stuff like this.

This is weird as hell. Why is Covington responding to something from 6 months ago?

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Jimmie Rivera (20-1) vs. Thomas Almeida (22-1); UFC on Fox 25, July 22.

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TODAY IN MMA HISTORY

2002: Murilo Bustamante submitted Matt Lindland in the main event of UFC 37 to retain his UFC middleweight championship. Earlier in the bout, Bustamante had seemingly submitted Lindland with an armbar but a confluence and things led to the fight being restarted. This event also saw the UFC debut of Robbie Lawler (who won a decision over Aaron Riley) and Ivan Salaverry who stopped Andrei Semenov with a topside crucifix.

2014: Matt Brown stopped Erick Silva with punches in the main event of UFC Fight Night 40.

2015: Stipe Miocic put Mark Hunt through the woodchipper to earn a fifth round stoppage in the main event of UFC Fight Night 65.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

The Official MayGregor Doomsday clock says it’s roughly an hour until midnight on the superfight and time is moving backwards. Dana is basically saying, “eh if this isn’t extremely easy I’m just gonna dip out because my boy is gonna get schooled and instead we can just run back Diaz-McGregor III for boatloads of cash.” Conor won’t fight in 2017, but he’s also never gonna box Mayweather. Luckily, we’ll still get to keep talking about it for the next year.

That’s all for today folks. Have a good one and see y’all tomorrow.

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