Conor McGregor plans to fight out his UFC contract soon, but could the promotion have other plans for him?
That’s what former two-division champion Henry Cejudo suggests is a possibility, given McGregor’s notoriously high salary and his guarantee that he will move on to bare-knuckle boxing for BKFC once his UFC run is over.
Cejudo wonders why the UFC doesn’t just cut ties with him now and be done with it.“At this point, he’s just f*cking trolling,” Cejudo said on his Pound 4 Pound podcast. “I don’t
believe anything that he’s saying. But he’s a draw, you know? Now it’s up to the UFC to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to pay you this much because you’re worth this much.’ I guarantee, I’m going to tell you right now, I can even see the UFC just letting him go based on what he got paid. They could be like, ‘Hey, you know what? You’ve got one fight left. We don’t think you’re worth that. You’re a free agent.’
“If I’m a businessman and I want to keep a lot of my money, and I like Conor—f*ck Conor. I would cut him. I swear to you I would, because if they’re going to give him 30 million and not have to give him 30 million particularly with that big-ass Paramount deal that they have and Paramount has to make their money, hey, just cut him. Let him be a free agent. Let him make more money elsewhere, but let him not make money or take money from us.”
McGregor is the biggest box office draw in the history of the UFC, and also took part in a crossover boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2017 that generated over four million pay-per-view buys. However, his reputation has plummeted in recent years due to a lack of success in the cage—McGregor is just 1-4 in the UFC since the Mayweather fight—and his deplorable behavior outside of it, including being found liable for sexual assault in 2024.
This past July at UFC 329, McGregor returned from a five-year hiatus to face rival Max Holloway, but the bout ended in just 69 seconds due to McGregor suffering a leg injury—the same injury that initially put him on the shelf for an extended period of time.
Cejudo isn’t sure if the McGregor experience is worth it anymore.
“There’s no more pay-per-view model, and this dude hasn’t won a fight,” Cejudo said. “Just the business aspect of it, just hear me out. Pretend I’m Dana White, you know what I’m doing? I’m saying he’s got one fight left, his last fight wasn’t even a fight. He lost again. Just let him leave with the loss in the UFC. Let him start his own career. Let us not pay him what he’s worth, which is $30 million—I believe he got paid $30 million in this fight against Holloway. That’s what he used to generate. There’s no more pay-per-views. … These contracts are already done.
“It’s not because, ‘Oh, Conor McGregor’s going to do this, give us more money.’ These contracts are already said and done.”
Cejudo added that there’s a risk in McGregor facing one of the UFC’s stars, picking up a win to boost his value once more, and then heading off to greener pastures with a stronger hand at the negotiating table.
“He has one fight left,” Cejudo said. “Let’s say he does fight Justin Gaethje and somehow beats Justin Gaethje? Then the ball’s on his court. He can go off and fight a bunch of tomato cans and make a whole bunch of money elsewhere.”
However, Cejudo conceded that McGregor still generates revenue in other ways, including an announced $26 million gate for UFC 329. He also noted that the UFC has done well to build other names off of McGregor, and if that’s their plan for his final fight, it could still pay dividends for the promotion.
“They’re all good,” Cejudo said, regarding potential opponents for McGregor. “He’s a cash cow, I get it. I get it, and that dude, I’m going to say it, he’s made everybody that has a f*cking name. From Khabib Nurmagomedov to Dustin Poirier to Nate Diaz, everybody that fought Conor and that was able to beat Conor, he changed their lives, let’s be real. Let’s be f*cking real.”
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FINAL THOUGHTS
Been a down couple of weeks (Saturday is fine but forgettable), but we’re almost to UFC 334 Fight Week, and that is one to get excited for.
Have a great weekend! Love y’all!
EXIT POLL
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