Conor McGregor has claimed original plans called for him to compete at UFC 224.
UFC 224 took place last month inside the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A women’s bantamweight title bout between champion Amanda Nunes and Raquel Pennington headlined the card. The event didn’t gain much buzz, but that certainly would’ve changed if original plans had come to fruition.
McGregor was recently named the number four highest paid athlete of 2018. If the “Notorious” one is to be believed, then he would’ve been even higher on the list had he fought last month:
“Made it to number four on the Forbes list this year. If I had of fought on the agreed May 12th bout in Rio de Janeiro, I would have surpassed Ronaldo and Messi to take second place. Something came up however… Ah well, still under 30.”
Ariel Helwani later confirmed that McGregor’s scheduled opponent was Rafael dos Anjos:
In this post, McGregor confirms my report from last month that the plan, before Brooklyn, was to have him fight in Rio at 224. (Not mentioned, but the plan, as reported, was RDA for the interim title.) https://t.co/0pl9XhxLFn
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 6, 2018
McGregor didn’t end up competing on the card due to a UFC 223 media day incident. McGregor, Artem Lobov and their entourage stormed around the red corner fighter bus. McGregor hurled a dolly at the bus, which shattered one of its windows. This caused Michael Chiesa to be cut on the forehead. Chiesa filed a police report and McGregor was arrested soon after.
The incident stems from a confrontation that Khabib Nurmagomedov and his team had with Artem Lobov. No strikes were thrown, but it appeared Nurmagomedov strong armed Lobov and had him cornered in a New York City hotel. The scene was enough for McGregor and his group to fly from Dublin to get a measure of revenge.
Do you think it would’ve made sense for Conor McGregor to fight at UFC 224?
