Dana White reveals why he has been in the middle of staredowns at Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor events

Throughout the course of the first two stops on the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor world tour, UFC President Dana White has been the man in the middle when Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor have come face to face for staredowns.

Much like his role in UFC press conferences, White has been in charge of keeping things from boiling over between the two men, making sure that neither fighter physically touches the other during the heated staredown exchanges.

According to White however, it was Mayweather advisor Al Haymon who put White in charge of keeping the peace.

He spoke to MMAFighting to discuss the situation:

“Al Haymon gave me specific directions. To make sure that Conor McGregor does not touch Floyd Mayweather. I’ll be in the middle.”

While White is of course no stranger to heated press conferences, he admits that Conor McGregor calling Showtime Exec Stephen Espinoza a “f**king weasel” on numerous occasions at the Toronto stop took him by surprise:

“It was weird how it happened,” White said. “We’re dealing with some things that we’re not used to dealing with. Plus, for me, being the control freak that I am, I have minimal control in all of this. But you have a lot of different people in the mix.”

In regards to what a win for McGregor would mean for the Irish superstar, White stated:

“If he knocks out Floyd Mayweather, man, it’s gonna be incredible,” White said. “It’ll probably be the biggest upset in sports history and he’d be the biggest athlete on any planet.”

McGregor of course, recently predicted that he would knock Mayweather out in the first four rounds of the fight, with Mayweather predicting that he would stop McGregor in the first 3 rounds.

on 7/13/2017.