Dana White Comments on Conor McGregor’s Call For Stadium Fight

Recently Conor McGregor said he’s down to fight Dustin Poirier on January 23rd, and he called for the scrap to take place at Cowboy Stadium. Well, since then Dana White was asked to respond to McGregor’s proposal, and it certainly doesn’t sound like that’s going to happen.

White responds to McGregor’s call for fight at AT&T Stadium

Recently McGregor buzzed the MMA world by announcing he’s willing to face Poirier in 2021 after all. Initially, he said he’d only rematch Poirier if the bout took place his year.

But, White reported that the next available date was January 23rd and that the offer was for that card. Well, McGregor proceeded to say okay, but he also called for the fight to take place at Cowboy Stadium.

White was asked about McGregor’s recent comments and his proposal today, while talking with the media in Abu Dhabi, and he said this (quote via MMA Fighting).

“He said, ‘yes’ and Dustin said, ‘yes,’ so now it’s a matter of getting contracts signed,” White said. “Listen, we’ve had a very good relationship with Jerry Jones for a long time and talked about Dallas, Texas, stadium forever.

“I’m not going into any arena where we’re going to fill a quarter of the arena or half of the arena or any of that stuff, so when crowds are ready to come back we’ll do crowds again.”

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So, White’s response here shouldn’t be a surprise. Sure, the UFC would love to have fans in attendance and to be able to generate gate, especially for a Conor bout.

But, as it stands right now, booking such an event could be risky. What if things get worse in Texas in the coming weeks? In terms of the pandemic?

Also, the UFC has been running well, working with the bubble venues in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi. So, to bring fans into the mix, with the pandemic ongoing, would present another list of logistic hurdles.

Further, maybe it is best to have no fans at all, rather than a half or three-quarters empty stadium for fights? 

All this aside, now we’re just waiting to hear that the fighters have officially signed on to battle at UFC 257.

When McGregor and Poirier fought back in 2014, the latter was stopped in the opening round.