UFC 200 needs a new main event since Conor McGregor was pulled from his fight versus Nate Diaz after refusing to participate in multiple PR events, including a commercial shoot as back-to-back press conferences in Las Vegas, Stockton and New York. If White is to be believed, Conor’s reasons where simple: He wanted to stay in Iceland, where he is currently holding his training camp.
Former UFC lightweight champion and now Bellator contender Benson Henderson recently told MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani that this is a problem of the UFC’s own doing.
“If you raise your children a certain way, they’re going to act a certain way,” Henderson said on the MMA Hour. “If you allow them to get away with certain things when they get older, they’re going to act a certain way. It’s what happened. Conor McGregor is acting a certain way because he was allowed to for much of his career, and it is what it is.”
The UFC brass was often criticized for favoring their biggest pay-per-view draw McGregor. They didn’t hesitate to pull him from the event, however. Only one other fighter has been scratched from a fight card for missing out on a press event before, Nate’s bigger brother Nick Diaz.
“You have other professional fighters who come here and do their jobs as professional athletes, and do a great job of promoting fights, good a job doing what they are supposed to do, but still acting within the means of being a professional athlete,” Henderson continued. “Some people do, some people don’t. Some people get away with doing whatever they want. No problem. If that’s you, who am I to say anything bad about it?”
UFC 200 takes place July 9 in the T-Mobile Aren in Las Vegas, NV. A new main event has yet to be announced.