By renaging on his promotional duties for the upcoming UFC 200 card in July, Irish superstar Conor McGregor lost out on a minimum of $10 million.
That’s the word from UFC boss Lorenzo Fertitta, who told long-time UFC referee ‘Big’ John McCarthy that he was taken by surprise that things had transpired the way they did, with McGregor refusing to attend a press conference tour, which led to the promotion having to pull him from the event altogether.
“I talked to Lorenzo Fertitta at UFC 197,” McCarthy stated on his ‘Let’s Get It On’ podcast this week. “Lorenzo said ‘I never thought that when a fighter was guaranteed 10 million dollars, I would have a problem.'”
McCarthy also revealed that when Fertitta first bought the company back in 2001, his ambition was to help the fighters earn more money, though it seems he didn’t realize back then just how big those cheques could end up being.
“He told me at the time that he wanted to be the promoter to pay fighters one million to fight,” McCarthy recalled.
The late rapper, Biggie Smalls (who’s ‘Hypnotize’ track just happens to be McGregor’s walk-out song’) was right though: ‘mo’ money, mo’ problems,’ and in this case, the fact that McGregor has already earned millions of dollars from his previous fights means that he no longer has to show up and fight if he doesn’t want to.
McGregor could retire today and never have to work another day in his life if he was sensible with his earnings, though his lavish lifestyle and love of expensive cars suggest that perhaps he’s going to need to keep the money flowing in order to continue to pay the bills in the longer term.
