Wrestle World - Dana White dismisses claim of Conor McGregor ducking Justin Gaethje repeatedly

LAS VEGAS – Dana White doubts Conor McGregor turned down Justin Gaethje multiple times.

According to Gaethje’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, McGregor has said no to fighting Gaethje on five different occasions in past years. McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) and Gaethje (25-5 MMA, 8-5 UFC) have traded barbs in the past but never fought each other.

“He (McGregor) got offered this fight at least five times,” Abdelaziz told Submission Radio. “He never wanted to have to do anything with Justin Gaethje. He said the reason he didn’t want to fight Justin was because Justin talked bad to him on Twitter and Instagram before, and the history we have with him. He didn’t want to lose to our team, I guess.

“Even the UFC told me this. ‘Hey, leave him alone. Don’t talk with him. He doesn’t like to fight people who talk bad to him on the internet. I promise you. He likes to be the one to start the talk and you retaliate.’ Why do you think (Michael) Chandler’s being so nice to him? Why? Because he was being told not to talk bad to Conor.”

White was asked about those allegations, and based on his history with McGregor, the UFC CEO doesn’t think that’s something he would do. White recounted the time McGregor agreed to fight Chad Mendes on short notice after Jose Aldo pulled out of their UFC 189 fight due to a broken rib.

”I don’t know if that’s true,” White said Tuesday during the Dana White’s Contender Series 75 post-fight news conference at the UFC Apex. “I’ve said this many times, and I’ll say it again: I mean, we actually have video footage of Lorenzo and I walking into his house that he (McGregor) was renting here. He just woke up, telling him that the fight fell out, and he’s literally leaving going, ‘Well, I’m going to train, let me know who I’m fighting when I get back.’ We’ve never had those kind of issues with Conor McGregor ever.”

McGregor is yet to return since breaking his leg in a TKO loss to Dustin Poirier in July 2021. He was booked to face Michael Chandler at UFC 303 in June but withdrew due to a broken pinky toe. Chandler has since moved on and is scheduled to rematch Charles Oliveira in the UFC 309 co-main event on Nov. 16 in New York.