Conor is in a tough spot and it's only a tough spot because it is a unique spot, and it's
a unique spot that should not have been created.
And what I'm talking about is Conor would like to rematch Khabib from everything that
we've been told.
It's very easy for us to believe that that is the case because that's what Conor’s
history is, right?
He loses to Nate Diaz, boom, he wants to do it again.
Nobody before, nobody in between, this guy next, same weight, same [00:00:27] rounds,
same venue, let's do this one again.
So it's very easy for us to believe that that is how Conor’s mind works because we've
seen it before.
Okay, great.
Well, Conor’s going to get his way.
Sure he is.
It's a business.
Conor is the money fight.
Of course he's going to get his way.
Everyone wants to fight Conor.
They're begging to fight Conor – because it's a business.
That's where the money’s going to be at.
So we could see where Khabib would want to get right back in there.
Khabib also appears to have unsettled business with Conor.
So Conor’ going to get his way.
Well, not so fast.
For reasons unknown and for guys who have a different form of commodity other than money,
which is very rare when you are in prizefighting or in a level of business, Khabib appears
that he does not want to do that fight.
Now, the reason that is interesting isn't because Khabib, like some guys, is being a
scumbag and is looking for easier fights.
He's not doing that at all.
In fact, he's calling out Tony Ferguson.
He's just going, “Look, Tony’s the guy.
I was supposed to fight Tony before a couple of times.
Tony got his title stripped.
Tony just beat Pettis.
I just beat Conor.
I'm the champion and he's the #1 contender.
This is the guy I'm going to fight.”
Well, that's compelling.
I mean, on one hand that's a breath of fresh air whether that's the bigger fight that you
want to see or not.
That's subsequent to the topic at hand, which is that's a breath of fresh air.
You've got the champion calling out the hardest fight he can possibly find in the form of
the #1 contender—who used to be the champion—by the name of Tony Ferguson.
Where that gets interesting for Conor is now you're in left field wearing a catcher’s
mitt going, “Wait a minute.
I'm the boss.
I've always been the boss.
I can have any fight I want.
I can choose fights.
I can pick—everybody’s coming to me.
The promoter’s coming to me.
The media partners are coming to me.
The fans are ready to hear what I want to do and every athlete from three different
weight classes is looking at me including a retired former two-division champion named
Georges St-Pierre who wants a—everybody wants a piece of me.
What do you mean?
What do you mean Khabib doesn’t want to fight me and doesn’t want the money and
doesn’t want the accolade?
And on top of that, Khabib should have a pretty good head of confidence because he just beat
me.
So what do you mean he doesn’t want to do this again, he wants to go fight Tony, for
less money, in arguably a harder fight?
What do you mean?
Logic is against this decision.”
It's still Khabib’s decision.
It's still where he's at at least today on the information that we're given.
It's very hard to push back on that when the champion is calling out the #1 contender.
The champion in Khabib is also saying, “I don't care about the money,” telling the
commission, “Don’t even worry about the fine.
Keep it all.”
Whether that's gamesmanship or not, as long as the other side believes it, it's now going
to work.
It's now a little bit more than a bluff.
It's now where everybody’s sitting back and going, “Has Khabib lost his mind?
This is prizefighting.
Go fight for the biggest prize!”
And Khabib goes, “I don't care about that.”
Well, you're in a tough spot.
I don’t even know how to give a prediction on that.
What are you going to do, tell Khabib no?
You're the world champion and we're not going to put you with the #1 contender because that
doesn’t make sense to do—he's the #1 contender!
It's a very unique spot and it's a unique spot for Conor.
And all the cards, if you're following logic in capitalism, appear to be on Conor’s side,
but for some reason he's still getting an adverse answer to the one he wants, which
is interesting.
So what does he do?
What does the promotion do?
Go do the Khabib and Tony?
Wait to see what happens to bring Conor back?
Try to talk Conor and do Diaz for all of a sudden Diaz’s dance card just became open?
When does Conor want to fight?
Does he want to do this sooner?
Does he want to do this later?
Can you get Conor to move?
Conor may not budge.
They came to Diaz the second time, Conor didn't budge, said, “I want Diaz, I want him at
the same weight class, I want him in five—I want everything to be the exact same all the
way down to the arena.”
Okay, and he would not budge.
Okay.
So what does he do?
It's a very tough spot and it's a very interesting spot when you look at it from a negotiating
standpoint.
I would never encourage you, in business or in life, to be careless, but I would always
encourage you to care less in every single negotiation.
It does not matter if it's business or even if it's a relationship, one side is going
to care more than the other, and the side that cares more has the disadvantage and the
side that cares less has the strength.
That is a reality.
So when Khabib comes out and is making it very clear that he does not care, he does
not care what happens.
I mean, he's even said, “I'm going to fight one more time, it's going to be Tony, and
I'm going to retire from the sport.”
Maybe he will.
I don't know.
He beats to a different drum, but there is something about that, whether it's sincere
or gamesmanship, and frankly I don’t—I take it as sincere!
But either side, there's something very powerful about it.
When you guys are learning the art of war, there are only a couple of things you need
to know.
First off, the best general never fires a shot, and second off, if you never want to
actually have to go to war—you just want to know the art of war—you must have a weapon
that the other side knows that they cannot defeat; and they have to work hand in hand
and you must have both.
You must convince the other side that you are willing to use that weapon.
The other side must believe that you will push the button.
If you can work those two things together, you will have the art of war and you won't
have to go to battle.
Khabib has succeeded in the art of war of making us all believe that with his power,
and the power is that 12-pound gold belt that can hold up an entire division—and he also
represents one-half of I would say the biggest fight you could possibly put on in the sport
right now, which would be a rematch between Khabib and Conor.
When he represents that and lets the other side know that he's willing to use it, which
is the eject button in this case, which is the retirement button, which is the “go
fight somebody that is not named Conor” button, it's very fascinating and it creates
a tremendous amount of power.
And I don't know how this will play out.
I don't know.
But it seems as though with the two minds of Conor and the needle-moving draw ability
that he has versus Khabib with the disciplined stance on principle, an undefeated record
and a 12-pound gold belt, it seems like you have two very immovable objects that history
says come together, history says this should be an easy one, this should be a slam dunk,
because after all this is a prizefight and, whether you like the guy you're standing across
from or not, whether you trust the son of a bitch you're standing across from or not,
like it or not, you are partners.
If even for a night, if even to never speak again, if even in a tumultuous relationship
that you did not wish for on your own, you are partners with him and partners in business
set out to make money.
So when Khabib comes in with the stance of, “No, I'm not going to work with my best
partner.
I'm going to go out and do just a harder fight with just as hard of a weight cut, with just
as much to risk, which is prestige and a title and a championship and a legacy and a record,
and I fully understand that for this tremendous risk I am going to be compensated less and
I don't care because I stand on principle and this is what I want to do,” when he
goes out and does that, I'm just fascinated by it.
We've really never seen this kind of a spot before.
We've really never seen somebody in this kind of predicament.
And what do you do?
How do you punish—you know, we're a little bit ahead of ourself because when we just
speak of punishments, right now it's not totally up to Khabib.
The funniest thing that had happened in that entire fight with Khabib and Conor from an
actual point of humor, of laughing out loud, and there was some very serious stuff there
but there was one piece where I about fell out of my chair, is when Khabib jumps over
the fence, causes a melee, attacks Dillon Danis, his own guy’s going to—it's so
bad they can't even put the on.
They can't even make the announcement to the—it's such a terrible spot.
He shows up to the press conference and says, “Why are you guys still talking about this?
I jumped over the cage.
Why are you still talking about this?”
The reason it was so funny is because he included the word “still.”
Why are you “still” talking about it?
I'm looking at my watch going, “Khabib, that was eight minutes ago!
That just ha—why are we still talking about it?”
“Why are you still talking about this?
I jumped over the cage.
Why are you still talking about this?”
It was so funny.
Some things were even forgiven, right?
Humor solves everything.
But he does, I mean, the reality, aside from the humorous spot of it, is he has to go before
the commission and, until we get that result, it's very tough to make any kind of predicaments
on, “Is he going to be fighting Tony like he says he wants to do?
Are they going to be able to do the Conor thing like they said they want to do and Conor
says he wants to do?
Is it going to be none of the above?”
And that's the elephant in the room that nobody’s discussing.
Khabib is going to sit.
They are going to come down on him.
Does that mean he sits for six months or does that mean he sits for 12?
They may choose that it's six, that it's less time, send him back in there and take 40%
instead of 20, take 30% instead of 10, right?
They have two ways to punish him right now and they may just say, “Listen, we have
such a big nut in this $2-million purse that we have upheld that we can just punish him
financially, do the sanction thataway, and then make him go out there and work.”
And that would be fair.
That would be one way to do it.
I just tend to think they're going to do both.
I think they're going to grab some money and make him sit.
But let's see what happens.
I don’t come to you with anymore than a bit of a guess on that, and it would probably
likely be a bigger punishment to just do the financial side.
I mean, they do have a obligation to commerce.
A commission does.
So you do want to get the guy back in there, get him back working, taking your 6%.
Why punish everybody?
What the hell the UFC do wrong?
What the commission do wrong?
They didn't do anything.
So don’t punish yourself, bring the guy back, take some of his purse, bring him back,
let him go out and do business again.
Let's see where all of that goes, but when you do the Conor and Khabib talk, as fascinating
as it is to look at the two polar opposite sides of this, of “yes, I want to do it”
versus “yeah, well, too bad, I'm not going to let you,” which is a unique spot for
Conor McGregor, a very unique spot—he's got to be looking left and looking right and
going, “What?
What are you talking about?
You don’t call the shots here.
The guy that brings in the money calls the shots.
I bring in the money.
I call the shots.”
Khabib says, “Yeah, keep your money.
Shove it up your ass.
Bring out Tony or whoever the #1 contender is.”
It's just an interesting spot.
Haven't seen it played out like this before.
Defies logic.
But before you even get to that, got to get through the bureaucracy, which is the commission.