White says McGregor still could be on 200, later says 'window is pretty much closed'
UFC boss Dana White went on "The Herd" on Wednesday morning to explain what led him to remove Conor McGregor from UFC 200 this week, and Colin Cowherd asked him what fans around the world were wondering:
Is there any chance McGregor still could fight at UFC 200?
"Yeah if he called me after this interview, we'd probably still do it," White said in the video below.
Clearly that didn't happen, because when White appeared on "UFC Tonight" later in the day, his tune had changed. Asked if McGregor still could get back on the card, White said "the window is pretty much closed."
McGregor has been training in Iceland while White and the UFC 200 fighters are in Las Vegas doing promotional work, and White said it's big-budget stuff that McGregor already is missing out on.
"This is UFC 200, obviously, you know, $10 million is going to be spent on marketing; the commercial alone that's being shot right now is over a million dollars. So ... he's already missing stuff. The window is pretty much closed."
The good news is that White repeatedly has said his relationship with McGregor is not damaged, and he thinks the Irish star will fight again in the UFC later this year.
If McGregor really were retired, not only would his featherweight title be vacated and Frankie Edgar and Jose Aldo would fight for it at UFC 200, but also there would be another consequence for McGregor, White says. Check it all out in the clip from "UFC Tonight".
