Conor McGregor in Standoff with UFC Over UFC 229 Promotion

Is Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor a fight so big that it promotes itself? “The Notorious” seems to think so, according to Dave Meltzer. Meltzer reports in his newsletter that the former champ-champ has yet to agree to his media obligations for UFC 229, which has caused frustrations on the UFC side:

“One of the reasons you haven’t seen much in the way of interviews and such is that McGregor has not agreed to do anything. There are no press conferences scheduled because McGregor at this point hasn’t agreed to them. There is a lot of frustration within the UFC about McGregor’s attitude, but in the end, he’s got the leverage and the ticket sales and secondary market results only give him more leverage.

The feeling is that this may be the biggest non-boxing PPV of all-time, and the only reason it wouldn’t be is that McGregor hasn’t been pushing it hard. McGregor was able to get a larger piece of the action for this fight than any of his UFC fights to date, so there is a direct correlation more than ever between his work in promoting the fight and his pocket book, but this may also show that he knows he’s in a real fight and doesn’t want to break training.”

It was recently reported that the UFC is planning a press event early next month, but the report was vague as to when the event would take place. Now, we have a glimpse into what, or who, is the holdup.

UFC 229 takes place October 6th, 2018 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, where McGregor will look to reclaim the lightweight championship against the undefeated Khabib Nurmagomedov.