{"id":125626,"date":"2025-05-23T15:46:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T15:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/125626\/"},"modified":"2025-05-23T15:46:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T15:46:07","slug":"its-a-stupid-fightdana-white-rejected-ufc-champs-conor-mcgregor-esque-plan-to-challenge-boxing-superstar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/125626\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s a stupid fight’\u2026Dana White rejected UFC champ’s Conor McGregor-esque plan to challenge boxing superstar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UFC CEO Dana White has kept the door firmly shut on his fighters facing boxers ever since Conor McGregor\u2019s lucrative crossover.<\/strong><\/p>\n

McGregor fought Floyd Mayweather Jr.<\/a> in a 2017 boxing match billed as\u00a0\u2018The Money Fight\u2019,\u00a0\u2018Boxing vs. MMA: Champion of Champions\u2019, and\u00a0\u2018The Biggest Fight in Combat Sports History\u2019.<\/p>\n

The bout ultimately delivered on those monikers during the build-up and on fight night. The event, which saw the American move to 50-0 by stopping McGregor<\/a> in round 10, sits behind only Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao as the second highest pay-per-view buy rate in history.<\/p>\n

Given that financial success, many expected similar crossover bouts to be made in the future. But a once long-reigning champion found out that such was not the case.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Dana White refused to entertain Kamaru Usman\u2019s desire to box Canelo Alvarez<\/p>\n

In many ways, McGregor vs. Mayweather<\/a> is credited for the ongoing crossover craze in combat sports, which has seen the likes of Anderson Silva, Nate Diaz, Jorge Masvidal, Anthony Pettis and many more all compete in boxing.<\/p>\n

But what did they all have in common? No contractual obligation with the UFC.<\/p>\n

When it comes to fighters actively under the UFC banner following in McGregor\u2019s footsteps, the number remains zero.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most persistent in discussing his hopes to change that was Kamaru Usman while he ruled as the UFC\u2019s welterweight champion and pound-for-pound king. Usman targeted P4P boxing star Canelo Alvarez<\/a>, even vowing to knock the Mexican out.<\/p>\n

But while the Nigerian-American\u2019s push for the bout garnered plenty of attention in early 2022, the UFC\u2019s head honcho made his stance clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything about it is horrible. It\u2019s a stupid fight to make, it makes no sense. I don\u2019t know how many people would be interested in seeing that,\u201d White told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Conor and Floyd fought, it took on a life of its own. Everywhere I went, people asked me if those two are going to fight. It just kept building, building and building. It ended up being the biggest pay-per-view ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething could come along but the whole boxing vs. MMA thing is silly,\u201d White added.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

What Canelo Alvarez said about boxing UFC star Kamaru Usman<\/p>\n

In rejecting any possibility of the fight coming together, White and the UFC seemingly served as the only red light.<\/p>\n

Following Usman\u2019s frequent callouts, Alvarez<\/a> gave somewhat of a thumbs up while speaking to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe. Why not? You never say no, right?\u201d Alvarez said. \u201cMy trainer told me about it. And I said, \u2018If you say [so].\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mexican fighter did, however, insist that he wanted to secure his legacy in boxing before committing to any novelty or crossover opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The Usman fight is] not really on my mind. I want a really good legacy for my career, and then we can talk about other things.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Since talk of that fight, the pound-for-pound boxing star has continued finding success in the ring. Most recently, Alvarez became a two-time undisputed champion<\/a> at super middleweight by defeating William Scull.<\/p>\n

Usman, meanwhile, has fallen on hard times inside the Octagon. \u2018The Nigerian Nightmare\u2019 hasn\u2019t won a fight since White rejected his boxing hopes, losing to Leon Edwards twice and Khamzat Chimaev.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old will look to record a first win in four years when he headlines the UFC Atlanta event against Joaquin Buckley on June 14.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC CEO Dana White has kept the door firmly shut on his fighters facing boxers ever since Conor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,4851,5704,4778,55643,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-125626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-canelo-alvarez","10":"tag-conor-mcgregor","11":"tag-dana-white","12":"tag-kamaru-usman","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114557929854563293","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}