The host also asked Dana if it was too late for Conor to change his mind and stay on 200. Dana chuckled and said "well, if he calls me right after this interview, then we'll probably do it".
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Good. Dana was once great for the sport. Now he is killing it. These guys need a union and to be paid more on average outside of advertisements. Dana should say any fighter who wins a title or fights 15 matches in ufc gets lifetime health insurance. The guy makes way too much money not to give back especially for what fighters put on the line.
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USADA isn't messing around. They sent a rep to a very remote small town in Russia to give a surprise test to Albert Tumenov
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Not sure if this is legit, but I'm pretty sure it's from Conor's Facebook page

I am just trying to do my job and fight here.
I am paid to fight. I am not yet paid to promote.
I have become lost in the game of promotion and forgot about the art of fighting.
There comes a time when you need to stop handing out flyers and get back to the damn shop.
50 world tours, 200 press conferences, 1 million interviews, 2 million photo shoots, and at the end of it all I'm left looking down the barrel of a lens, staring defeat in the face, thinking of nothing but my incorrect fight preparation. And the many distractions that led to this.
Nothing else was going through my mind.
It is time to go back and live the life that got me this life.
Sitting in a car on the way to some dump in Conneticut or somewhere, to speak to Tim and Suzie on the nobody gives a fuck morning show did not get me this life.
Talking to some lady that deep down doesn't give a fuck about what I'm doing, but just wants some sound bites so she can maybe get her little tight ass a nice raise, and I'm cool with that too, I've been giving you all raises. But I need to focus on me now.
I'm coming for my revenge here.
I flew an entire team to Portugal and to Iceland to make my adjustments in preparation and fix my errors I made with the weight and the cardio prep.
With the right adjustments and the right focus, I will finish what I started in that last fight.
I will not do this if I am back on the road handing out flyers again.
I will always play the game and play it better than anybody, but just for this one, where I am coming off a loss, I asked for some leeway where I can just train and focus. I did not shut down all media requests. I simply wanted a slight adjustment.
But it was denied.
There had been 10 million dollars allocated for the promotion of this event is what they told me.
So as a gesture of good will, I went and not only saved that 10 million dollars in promotion money, I then went and tripled it for them.
And all with one tweet.
Keep that 10 mill to promote the other bums that need it. My shows are good.
I must isolate myself now.
I am facing a taller, longer and heavier man. I need to prepare correctly this time.
I can not dance for you this time.
It is time for the other monkeys to dance. I've danced us all the way here.
Nate's little mush head looks good up on that stage these days. Stuff him in front of the camera for it.
He came in with no shit to do that last one. I'd already done press conferences, interviews and shot the ads before RDA pulled out.
Maybe I'll hit Cabo this time and skull some shots pre-fight with no obligation.
I'm doing what I need for me now.
It is time to be selfish with my training again. It is the only way.
I feel the $400million I have generated for the company in my last three events, all inside 8 months, is enough to get me this slight leeway.
I am still ready to go for UFC 200.
I will offer, like I already did, to fly to New York for the big press conference that was scheduled, and then I will go back into training. With no distractions.
If this is not enough or they feel I have not deserved to sit this promotion run out this one time, well then I don't know what to say.
For the record also -
For USADA and for the UFC and my contract stipulations -
I AM NOT RETIRED.
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So I guess the fight is still on?
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Rumors are he wants to promote his own fights.


Like the ufc is gonna go for that :-)
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And FTR I can see where he's coming from somewhat.
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I completely see where he is coming from with him wanting to focus on training and not TV interviews.
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I'm guessing he won't have to do the whole media thing and will still fight at 200.

But we will see
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It really wouldn't shock me to know the whole thing is a set up to generate PPV buys.
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Is anyone really all that excited to see a rematch exhibition fight? I want to see McGregor vs Edgar or something of meaning.
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I think they will either rebook the fight for 201, or they will tell him to start training to defend against Aldo/Edgar in the Fall. I don't think they will let him headline 200 now after flaking out on them. Maybe he could have talked his way out of doing more than a token amount of media for 202 or something, but he signed on to headline freaking UFC 200, of course he has to do a lot of promoting.

Apparently the UFC offered to fly him out to all 3 cities on a private jet, have gyms waiting for him at each spot so he can keep training, then fly him home and he still said no. I can picture Dana at that point throwing his hands up and saying "fine, fuck him then, maybe we can get Jon Jones/DC to headline"

I think they are waiting to see how it goes tomorrow, if Jon Jones easily beats OSP with minimal damage, they'll probably set that up.
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I think it's pretty well known that I believe they are both idiots
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I read that earlier today, too. I really don't like Conor at all and was looking forward to watching Nate kick the shit out of him.
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wut?
you gotta be fucking KIDDING ME!?
I wanna see that bitch get beat up again...after he "fully prepares".
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