Conor McGregor is as open as athletes come these days. While discussing his spat with the company and president Dana White on SportsCenter in an interview with Kenny Mayne, the UFC featherweight champion did not spare the details.
"It was a publicized civil war. It was a time where I was figuring out something," McGregor said. "I didn't just shut out and say no to everything. I wanted to do reasonable media.
"Then it was like, 'Conor, we've gotta get you on 40-hour flights to go do a run around New York, Vegas, California, 70 press conferences, 70 shows, [advertising],'" McGregor said. "I only made $400 million last week. I need to get right. I was deep in the process. I wanted a little bit more time. I didn't shut them off completely."
Though he does not feel any differently about the frustration he felt of seeing a long and tedious media tour in front of him, McGregor does regret not joining the press tour and getting his rematch with Diaz in July.
"Seeing the press conferences take place, I should have just jumped on the damn flight. I should've just stuck it out and went with it," McGregor said. "But sometimes, you've gotta do what's right for you instead of what's right for everybody else -- especially if you've done what's right for everybody else a million times over."
It's an interesting sentiment from the fighter. While there is a human element to the story of trying to beat the first person to take him down in UFC, making money has also been a priority for the Irishman.
Obviously, he needed to go back to the drawing board after losing to Diaz in the fashion he did, but McGregor clearly loves to fight more than anything.
There's still plenty of money in a rematch with Diaz, but McGregor will likely have to wait some time to get back into the octagon.
