White To McGregor On Poster Controversy: You’re Right, Conor
At last month’s UFC 196 (previously UFC 197) press conference, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor made it vividly clear that he wasn’t happy with the promotional posters for the event.
McGregor is scheduled to move up in weight and challenge Rafael dos Anjos for the lightweight title on March 5, 2016 from Las Vegas, Nevada.
At the press conference, the “Notorious” one was angered that he wasn’t holding his title on the poster, and that his belt wasn’t sitting in front of him at the time. While only dos Anjos’ title is on the line, the fight is indeed a battle between two champions.
UFC president Dana White said at the time that the reasoning was, in reality, because RDA was the defending champion, but it seems as if he has since changed his tune.
With the rescheduling of the events, a new poster was forced to be made, and this time, each man has his title with the bout being billed as champion vs. champion. Recently speaking on the changes with the Grant and Danny show (via MMAFighting), White admitted that McGregor was right:
“Conor made his argument, ‘This is a superfight. I’m a [145]-pound champion. He’s the [155]-pound champion. My belt should be represented even though I’m not defending my belt.’
“And I said, ‘You know what? You’re right, Conor. All right, we’ll do it,” White recalls.
In the end, the UFC boss acknowledged that he had a super fight on his hands, making the switch up a necessity:
“We actually switched the poster and they’ve both got their belts and it’s champion vs. champion,” said White. “It’s a superfight: 45 vs. 55 for the 55-pound title.”
Check out the new and improved poster below courtesy of the UFC:
FIRST LOOK at the Official #UFC196 Poster! ? pic.twitter.com/UT6HFXLxWv
— #UFCVegas (@ufc) February 4, 2016
