Dana White Links Wealth to McGregor, Nurmagomedov Declines

UFC President Dana White has attributed the career trajectories of two of the promotion's biggest stars, Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov, to the overwhelming financial success they achieved, suggesting it diminished their drive to compete at the highest level.

In a recent interview on the "Delivering Happiness" podcast with host Nick Turturro, White addressed the impact of wealth on fighters' motivations. He pointed to McGregor's 2017 boxing match against Floyd Mayweather, which netted the Irish fighter approximately $100 million, as a pivotal moment. "Money ruins everything," White said. "Once you get too much money involved in the fight business, if you look at Conor, Conor made so much money, and that was it." White noted that McGregor has fought only four times since that bout, securing just one victory against Donald Cerrone in 2020, amid a series of injuries, legal challenges, and business ventures outside the cage.

For Nurmagomedov, White highlighted the Russian's financial gains from tours in Muslim-majority countries like Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar following his undefeated lightweight championship run. Nurmagomedov retired at age 32 in 2020, shortly after...