Fansided

Dana White set deadline to book Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor

By José Youngs

LAS VEGAS, NV - JULY 11: UFC President Dana White (R) speaks with UFC interim featherweight champion Conor McGregor during the UFC 189 post fight press conference at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on July 11, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - JULY 11: UFC President Dana White (R) speaks with UFC interim featherweight champion Conor McGregor during the UFC 189 post fight press conference at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on July 11, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images) /
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Dana White has a deadline for making the fight between Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor a reality.

UFC President Dana White is just as fed up as waiting for Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor as everyone else.

Appearing on ‘The Jim Rome Show’ on Thursday afternoon, White revealed UFC officials are putting a deadline for his Sunday to make the fight a reality. Otherwise, he’s walking away from the superfight and the massive financial gain it would bring.

If he can get McGregor on board at the end of the weekend, then he’ll meet with Mayweather and his team to finalize the deal.

“I plan on having this thing locked up by this Sunday and then moving on to Team Mayweather and start to negotiate with them,” White told The Jim Rome Show (h/t MMAJunkie). “If we really do get it done in that timeframe, then this thing could possibly happen. Again, I still have to go negotiate with them. There’s no guarantee that we’re going to come to a deal.

“I think [the chances of a deal with McGregor] are pretty good. Hopefully Monday I’m going to sit down and negotiate with Team Mayweather. I just can’t keep messing with this thing. I have to run my business and I have to focus on all the other things that are going on around here.”

McGregor (21-3 MMA) was last seen earning his second UFC championship with a crippling second-round knockout over former Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 last November. This victory made McGregor the first fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two separate weight classes at the same time.

Since then, both McGregor and Mayweather have made it known the only fight they were interested in was against the other.

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While there were reports that both sides had finally reached an agreement, Mayweather denied the rumors, claiming he was happy in retirement. He would later backtrack on these comments, announcing he was indeed returning to face his Irish counterpart.

However, White would throw another wrench into the negotiations when he revealed the recently announced boxing match between Gennady Golovkin vs. Canelo Alvarez had taken the the date they were hoping to secure.

“[September 16] was the date we were shooting for,” said White. “I was doing an interview earlier and they said, ‘Well the MGM says you hadn’t held the date.’ We hadn’t — we hadn’t held the date. But that’s the date we were shooting for. … I didn’t see any big fights coming up that we couldn’t have took the date from if they ended up with that date.

“Then they come up with Canelo and ‘GGG,’ which is a real fight. That’s a fight I’ll actually buy tickets for and go to myself. So, yeah, life waits for nobody. We should have moved faster, we should have moved further along in the negotiations, and it’s our own fault.”

Neither Mayeather or his team have responded to White’s latest comments.

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