Alvarez: McGregor has ‘WWE fans’ who ‘don’t know shit about MMA’
Alvarez says he was taken aback when the crowd at the UFC 205 press conference greeted him with jeers.
I mean, given the reaction of that crowd, it kind of was weird, I definitely didn’t expect that. It just sort of reiterated to me what his fan base is. His fan base is him. They’re people who, it’s all perception. It seems like he has a lot of WWE fans, guys who don’t know much about fighting at all, they are just like him. You can have them fans, they’re not the fans I want anyway. You can boo all day long. I don’t want fans who don’t know shit about MMA. I’d rather have a fan who knows the sport, enjoys the sport, and can see value.
Payday is ‘millions’
After McGregor claims that Alvarez he didn’t negotiate a big payday, Alvarez says that he is being paid ‘millions’ for the fight.
I’m happy with the money I’m ready to make. I think you have to be able to earn the right to draw a line in the sand and be able to say ‘this is what I want,’ and I think fighters need to be prepared to walk if that’s the case. … It wasn’t one I was willing to walk away from at this time. I wasn’t going to sit there and nickel and dime the UFC about negotiating the deal. The deal was good. [A ballpark figure is] millions.
‘Not threatened’ by McGregor
Alvarez says that he is not threatened by McGregor.
Usually when I square off with a man, my heart rate goes up, I feel something. I never felt so unthreatened by a human being as when I was up on a stage with him. That’s the God’s honest truth. I’ve never felt so unthreatened. [Other fighters] have a well-rounded skill set and even if the fight goes to another realm of MMA, from standing up, to ground, to jiu-jitsu, everyone is tough in each one. They’re well versed, to the point where they can hang with some of the toughest guys in the world in any aspect of the sport. And I don’t think [McGregor] can, from what I’ve seen…The conditioning aspect is just not a good level of conditioning. The last Nate Diaz fight was a very big eye opener for me.
Aldo: McGregor fight could not stop retirement
When asked if a fight with McGregor would stop his retirement from UFC, Aldo says:
No. Not even that. “If anything, that should have been what happened. This fight is the fight that should have been made as the next fight at 145[lbs]. I earned this. I earned this since I first arrived at UFC. Because I’ve seen other champions losing and getting immediate rematches. But, in my case, they made me fight for the interim belt instead. I did it, and I won. And even now, I don’t have any perspective for my future. So for me, not even a fight against McGregor. I don’t care if he is fighting someone else. I couldn’t care less how he manages his career. I want to follow my own path. So the only way for them to make things right with me, is by releasing me.
‘Everyone knows McGregor is scared to fight me’
Aldo says he does not want to fight on another promotion.
It’s hard for me. If there’s something good [the UFC can do] is release me. I don’t want to fight for other promotion. I’m at the level above. There’s no reason why leave the first division to fight at the second division when I’m well appreciated in the first division, it would mean taking a step back. I don’t want to fight for another promotion.
And comments on McGregor:
Everybody knows he’s scared to fight [me]. He knows how dangerous I am for him for the fact that my last fight, everybody said that I had a safe performance and if I fight this way I don’t lose to anyone. I’ve seen him in press conferences saying that he would fight with Frankie Edgar but not against me. I think he’s scared.
Roddy: McGregor’s leg is 100%, predicts UFC 205 KO victory
Striking coach Owens says McGregor’s leg is fine:
He (Conor) was back in the gym moving about two days afterwards in Vegas. You saw the amount of kicks he threw in the Diaz fight and he obviously just caught a few of them on the knee and he just really badly bruised his shin. There was no serious issue with the foot. I think they found a small fracture from a while back but it was nothing. The shin itself was really bashed up from after the fight, but within a couple of days he was back training and moving around. There’s no issues there and he’s 100% – he was a couple of days after.
And that McGregor will win easily against Alvarez:
No disrespect to Alvarez – he’s a great fighter, but he moves very similar to a lot of the guys that Conor has fought. Even when Conor has fought strikers, they’ve all become that type of fighter – when Conor lands they become a panicked wrestler. That’s what’s going to happen. Conor lands clean and when it comes to a few exchanges Alvarez is going to feel the difference in accuracy and power and he’s going to try and wrestle…Alvarez is a great wrestler so there will be stuff we will be working on with Conor to make sure Alvarez can’t keep ahold of him and can’t keep him against the fence. Conor is going to land and it’s going to be a matter of time before Alvarez goes to sleep to be totally honest.
Cerrone: McGregor ‘sucks’
Cerrone comments on McGregor-Alvarez:
That’s not a good fight because Conor sucks. Eddie is smart. He won’t get caught up in all of the dramatics of it. He’ll just go in there and take him down, f-cking wrestle him and f-cking submit him! Easy work…Conor is good at getting you emotionally involved. So, I think you just go out there, take him down, and f-cking end him quick.
Aldo: GSP wanted $10 million to fight McGregor
Aldo claims St-Pierre wanted a $10 million payout to fight McGregor. St-Pierre hasn’t fought since 2013, when he scraped by Johny Hendricks in the last defence of his welterweight title before he vacated his belt and stepped away from the fight game. Aldo:
I think that my life and the whole featherweight division needs to keep going, not being stalled while he (McGregor) does three fights in the lightweight division… Another one that he wanted to do, make a super fight with Georges St-Pierre, which didn’t work out because Georges wanted $10 million and Dana didn’t want to pay it. So he still put him with Nate for the second time. So for me, Dana’s word is worthless.
White: Rousey still biggest star in UFC history
White says Rousey is the biggest draw in UFC. Part of White’s reasoning comes from her fight against Bethe Correia in 2015 when she received a raucous reception from the home crowd despite facing a native Brazilian.
[She’s the biggest] by far. Not even close, by far the biggest star ever. Ronda Rousey is such a big star that when you go down to Brazil, I don’t know if you guys have watched any of the fights we do from Brazil — they don’t care who you are. They want the Brazilian to whoop your ass. When Ronda went down there, they cheered for Ronda over the Brazilian. Never seen that before in my life and will probably never see it again. That’s how big Ronda Rousey is.
Calls McGregor’s defence ‘atrocious’
Alvarez says McGregor’s defence is weak.
I can tell you first-hand that Conor McGregor and the things he says are actually funny and I have no problem laughing at them. I’m not going to get angry. Funny is funny. [His offence is good] but his defence is atrocious… he doesn’t move his head. His best attribute is his reactionary time. A guy like me, I can go wherever. I can kick, I can punch, I can f-cking submit and I can do it all f-cking night…I’ll do whatever the f-ck I want, in any aspect against him. If I want to stand.. I’ll stand, he don’t move his head, he gets hit a tonne
The reason that Conor is [my] target is that every time I beat someone, like a fighter like a Rafael dos Anjos or a Gilbert Melendez, who is actually a legend in this sport and is proven over years to be the best, I get asked about Conor McGregor and it’s kinda annoying so after a while I started being honest with people and telling them what I think…I was being honest with the media saying that I’ve literally fought the best guys in the world back-to-back, and I could use a fight that’s better for me stylistically. And I’m saying that being completely honest with myself and the fans…when you bring anger and all these emotions to a press conference… I think it’s not who you are… I just think being myself up there is the most important.
White: McGregor to make ‘left field’ announcement after 205
White says there is a deeper reason to giving McGregor the fight against Alvarez.
Listen, I battled this thing forever. Not only is it not fair to Jose Aldo, it’s not fair to Khabib and Max Holloway. So, believe me, I battled with this thing but there are… how can I say this? There are other circumstances involved in this that will be played out after the fight. It’s something completely out of left field but it’s Conor’s business, it’s not mine, and I’ll let Conor announce it when he’s ready to.
Ready to fight Mayweather
When told that Mayweather said a fight with him is still possible, McGregor responds:
I told you I’m ready for that fight.
Kellerman, Smith: Mayweather knows McGregor fight is easy money
Smith and Kellerman discuss McGregor-Mayweather on ESPN First Take. Kellerman:
You gotta love Conor McGregor, he’s the best talker who can fight. Floyd is the best fighter who can talk. You put those two names together it’s going to be a big promotion…If you’re the same size as Floyd you’re not going to beat him in the ring…You’re also not going to beat him at the negotiating table…His team is the best at negotiating…so he gets the lion’s share against anyone…But here’s where McGregor has the leverage…In the ring, Floyd against McGregor…that’s easy money. So where else does Mayweather get the chance to make so much money, for so little risk?…I think at even some level even McGregor knows this. So the negotiation goes on…Conor has plenty of leverage here.
Smith:
So I talked to Floyd on the phone and he said, ‘Yeah man, I called it off brother gotta know his place. I’m all about business. I’m in this for business’… He doesn’t need anything, but he has no problems in making more money.. But here’s the thing about Floyd; he has no problem with a fighter getting money…He respects Conor McGregor because he brings the dollars in, he’s not going to let McGregor get more than him, but he has no problem with Conor McGregor getting his share.
Mayweather: McGregor fight still possible
After McGregor called out Mayweather at the UFC 205 press conference:
I’m looking around, I don’t know what anyone else has for me around here. I might have to jump up, drag Floyd Mayweather out of bed and see what he’s at again.
Mayweather responds:
Are we going to fight? I just don’t know…Ya man, I’m loving retirement but you know, for a couple more bucks, you just don’t know.
Coach: Aldo’s not bluffing
Aldo’s coach says that the fighter’s stance is not a bluff.
In my mind, from the conversations we had, he no longer wants to fight for the UFC. I’m traveling today. Hopefully, I’ll have a meeting with the matchmakers. I believe Dana will be at this event, so we can sit down and figure out the best way to terminate the contract…Yesterday we talked and he said he doesn’t want anything, not even millions of dollar proposals. In his head, he wants out…We’d talked about (this decision), because he’d already said, ‘If they screw me over this time, I’ll stop fighting for the UFC.’ And we believed it wouldn’t happen – also because of Dana’s statements…We thought, ‘If he’s going to fight in the upper division, we’ll keep the belt and fight either (Max) Holloway or (Anthony) Pettis. If he takes the rematch against us, I’ll fight him directly, all good, problem solved.
McGregor rejected Cerrone fight twice
Cerrone says he was offered two fights with McGregor.
Someone please just shut this dude up. Last night [at the UFC 205 press conference] I was going to get on the horn and start getting after him but I decided not to because you talk about him, people not taking fights, he, two times I had the obligation to fight him and he turned down and took the easier fight…When he fought Diaz for the first time, I just fought. So it was Sunday, I was flying home, Dana calls and asked me if I’d like to fight Conor and that was for the Diaz first fight. And, he declined me and took Diaz cause Diaz was in Mexico you know, took the fight on 10 days notice or whatever. But, why would he want to fight me coming off a win? So yeah, my name was in the hat. Conor and his people didn’t pick me.
White: McGregor must relinquish title on UFC 205 win
White says that if McGregor defeats Alvarez for the Lightweight Championship at UFC 205 in New York, he will have to relinquish one of his titles before moving forward.
He wants to try to gain both belts and he will give up one of the titles after that fight in New York…He’s got some stuff going on right now, some personal stuff that I’m sure he’ll announce when he’s ready. But this fight made sense.
White will not let Aldo go
White says that he has no intention of letting Aldo go.
We won’t cancel his contract. We know he got very emotional. We respect Jose Aldo very much. We care for the people around him…Khabib Nurmagomedov wanted a fight on the card and we got it for him. I’m sure we can find something nice for Aldo as well.
McGregor ‘knows exactly who I am’
In response to McGregor’s comment at the UFC 205 press conference, Stephens, who has fought on two UFC cards alongside McGregor (UFC 189 and 194), says that McGregor knows who he is:
It’s kind of sad because I really couldn’t hear exactly what he was saying throughout the press conference, or what anybody was saying. I couldn’t hear what Donald Cerrone was saying and he was right next to me. I wanted to jump in a little bit more and create that buzz because there’s a lot of buzz around McGregor and I wanted to steal that thunder but I also didn’t want to sound like an idiot because I couldn’t hear exactly what he was saying.
When we got into it, it is what it is. He knows exactly who I am. I’ve fought on his cards before and had some nasty knockouts. It’s only a matter of time but right now my 100% focus is on Frankie Edgar. An exciting win, a great knockout, a highlight win puts me right in the mix for that title shot. You never know, there could be some injuries or whatnot and I’d gladly be the guy to step up and put on a show for the New York fans.
Also wants to retire from MMA
After White tells Combate TV that he will try to fix Aldo’s resignation from UFC, Aldo calls the station to say he wants the UFC President to leave him alone, and that he not only wishes to be released from the UFC, he wants to retire from MMA permanently.
Not even fight MMA, too. It has reached a limit now. I talked to ‘Dede’ a long time ago and he convinced me to continue. I went to the Frankie Edgar fight and won. I fought to win for ‘Dede’. I’m not angry or upset now, nothing. I never fought for money, I had a good career and legacy as featherweight champion. If [Dana] likes me and my family, I just hope he releases me. I don’t want a fight. I want to leave as I came in. The UFC and WEC didn’t give me anything. Everything I conquered was my merit and from my team. Nobody gave me anything. I conquered everything. And I gave them a lot more than they gave me back. I just want them to release me from my contract. I’m not a whore to sell myself [for money]. I don’t even want to fight MMA. I want to follow a career in another sport. That’s what I want.