Dana White closes the door on a duel between McGregor and Pacquiao

Dana (right) will not pit McGregor (left) against Pacquiao Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC

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Dana White denied any possibility of allowing the UFC lightweight champion, Conor McGregor, box against Manny Pacquiao. The Filipino super champion himself had expressed interest in sharing the ring with the Irishman, but his promoter, Bob Arum, is a declared disliker of Dana, which prevents any agreement, according to the Ultimate boss.

“Listen, I love Manny Pacquiao, but I don't love Bob Arum. You can tell Arum to save his money and not make any attempts here, because we won't do business with him”, commented Dana, in an interview with the North American website Yahoo Sports.

Dana's problem with Bob Arum is old: the boxing promoter is one of the UFC's biggest critics and the two have been exchanging barbs in the press for many years. Arum has already been responsible for promoting fights for other boxing giants, such as Muhammad Ali, Oscar De La Hoya, George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard, among others.

Pacquiao's idea came after the confidential negotiations that have been taking place for McGregor to migrate from MMA to boxing to fight a super fight against another big star in the sport: Floyd Mayweather. Dana White himself admitted that he would like to promote the fight, and made an initial offer of $25 million to each athlete, which was promptly turned down by Mayweather.