Dana White open to Canelo Alvarez-Conor McGregor: ‘Let’s put a pin on that’

UFC President and CEO Dana White is no stranger to big business in boxing. 

In 2017, White spearheaded and co-promoted the blockbuster crossover clash between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor. The event generated 4.3m pay-per-view buys in the United States and more than $600m in total revenue.

Mayweather scored a 10th-round knockout of McGregor in what ended up being the final fight of his Hall of Fame career. The lightning rod McGregor, meanwhile, has fought just four times in MMA ever since, losing three. 

McGregor has long maintained that a boxing career could be in the cards, entertaining the idea of fights against Manny Pacquiao and even a world title run. 

And as Saul “Canelo” Alvarez prepares to fight Edgar Berlanga on Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the same night UFC 306 will be staged at The Sphere, 36-year-old McGregor continues to lob shots at the Mexican star.  

“Canelo is a cornflake. He has about 300,000 buys in him,” McGregor recently wrote on social media. “He does not generate nothing near what he seeks to be paid. UFC Noche is going to run them from The Strip. Sheik Turki was right moving on. Canelo doesn’t sell.”

As Alvarez flexes his muscle seeking nine-figure paydays for bigtime fights, the Mexican star told BoxingScene after hearing McGregor’s remarks that a boxing match against the Irishman would be “easy money.” 

When White was asked if a McGregor-Alvarez fight could be made if the price was right, the executive was noncommittal. 

He took a long pause to think about the idea and said “Let’s put a pin on that” with a big smile. 

McGregor still has unfinished business with the UFC and needs to complete his contract. He was supposed to fight June 29 against Michael Chandler but a broken toe forced him out of UFC 303.

“I was skeptical from the jump saying that Conor would fight in 2024,” said White. “I am not about 2025. I think Conor will fight in early 2025.”

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter whose work has appeared on ESPN, Fox Sports, USA Today, The Guardian, Newsweek, Men’s Health, NFL.com, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Ring Magazine, and more. He’s been writing for BoxingScene since 2018. Manouk is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.