Following his dominant performance over Dennis Siver in the main event of Sunday’s UFC Fight Night 59 event at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, rising Irish UFC Featherweight contender “The Notorious” Conor McGregor has earned himself a title shot against the current champion of the 145-pound division, Jose Aldo.
Unfortunately for McGregor, his vision of capturing the coveted championship will not take place at Croke Park stadium as UFC President Dana White revealed during the UFN 59 post-fight press conference that the McGregor-Aldo title fight will most likely emanate from Las Vegas, Nevada during Memorial Day weekend.
“It’s absolutely perfect,” said McGregor at the post-presser, where he enjoyed a nice glass of whiskey. “Of course, the stadium is a dream of mine, a vision of mine, [but] Vegas? I’m happy with Vegas.”
White explained why McGregor’s “vision” won’t come to fruition, noting that there’s several obstacles that stand in the way of UFC bringing the event to the Dublin-based soccer stadium.
“There’s a lot of obstacles for Croke Park,” said White at the press conference.
White began, “The time, they have a curfew at night where you can’t get permits to stay out that late and do an event there.”
He continued, “You lose about 25 to 30 percent on pay-view being in another country. The amount of money on the production for Croke Park, and I can guarantee you it’s going to rain.
“I’m not saying we’re never going to do it, but Vegas for this one,” White concluded.
McGregor explained how he found out that Croke Park would not be the site for his title opportunity against Aldo, revealing how he and UFC brass discuss “big business” in routine fashion.
“We discuss, as you can see, it’s tradition,” said McGregor. “I remove a head. I bring it backstage, I place it on Mr. White’s desk. Here you go boss, another one down. Then we discuss big business, so when we discuss big business, big business goes down in Viva Las Vegas. So we’re going to go to Las Vegas, and one more head will be collected.”
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