Conor McGregor Likely Cost Himself Millions With Barclays Meltdown, Arrest

Conor McGregor has likely cost himself millions of dollars according to a new report. It appears the UFC and McGregor were close to finalizing a new agreement for his return to the promotion, and a dramatic announcement was planned for Friday night’s 25th anniversary press conference. That didn’t happen.

Instead, McGregor showed up to Barclays Center on Thursday, went on a rampage and faces felony criminal mischief and other charges. Aside from his actions ruining UFC 223’s card thanks to injuries sustained by several fighters, it also blew up the opportunity for negotiations for his return to finish.

As I’ve said several times now, Thursday’s mayhem at Barclays bears all the hallmarks of a planned stunt gone horribly wrong. But lets just pretend the UFC and Dana White weren’t in on any of it. If that’s the case, the amount of money they were going to give McGregor has to have dropped off the table. Aside from not wanting to work with a crazy person, he also attacked several of the promotion’s performers and destroyed Saturday’s card.

McGregor’s return was set to be announced as a fight against Rafael dos Anjos for the interim welterweight title sometime this spring. McGregor and dos Anjos had danced around a potential fight before when dos Anjos was the lightweight champion, but those plans were derailed when Eddie Alvarez shockingly KO’d dos Anjos. McGregor went on to beat Alvarez at UFC 205 for the lightweight title.

Obviously for the dos Anjos fight to happen, the UFC and McGregor had to come to terms on a new contract first, but most believed that deal was close to being done. Now it appears that is completely off the table.

Dos Anjos will now face Colby Covington for the interim welterweight title at UFC 225, and McGregor’s future is murky at best.

That’s a lot of money flushed down the toilet in the course of an afternoon.