The return of Conor McGregor to the UFC always becomes one of the biggest news stories of the summer as the former UFC Featherweight and Lightweight Champion hasn’t been in the cage in nearly five years. Injuries, suspensions, and personal matters have kept him away from the UFC in that time, but despite teasing a comeback several times, one stumbling block that McGregor, and many other high-profile fighters are experiencing is money.

McGregor was someone who used to benefit from pay-per-view points when it came to how much money he would make from his fights. However, since the move to Paramount+, pay-per-views have become a thing of the past for the UFC in the United States, which would naturally impact McGregor’s contract for when he comes back. UFC President Dana White was asked at the UFC 328 post-show press conference about how a deal of McGregor’s size would be realized, and White stated that everything will be fine.

“There’s a formula to it, McGregor’s going to do just fine,” White said. “Based on, if you take the average of his pay-per-view buys and what they do, there’s an equation for that, that you can–I mean we’ve done it with a lot more guys than just McGregor.”

Later, White was asked about the way TKO goes about structuring the boxing deals for fighters like Conor Benn, who reportedly made eight figures off of one fight in April 2026. However, when it comes to actual figures, White wasn’t going to reveal anything. “I don’t give out anybody’s numbers ever, Conor Benn, Conor McGregor and anybody else here. If Conor Benn wants to talk about his contract and how much he’s making then talk to him about it.”

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Khamzat Chimaev’s first defense of the UFC Middleweight Championship didn’t exactly go according to plan at UFC 328, with the “Chechen Wolf” losing his title to Sean Strickland via a split decision. Given the razor sharp nature of the decision, many fans thought it would only make sense for Chimaev and Strickland to run it back at a later date to determine a true, concrete winner, but that isn’t going to happen according to UFC President Dana White.

During the UFC 328 post-show press conference, White revealed that he had a brief interaction with Chimaev after the fight, with the former champion stating that he has finished his time in the middleweight division. “He literally walked up to me after the fight and said ‘I want to move up [to light heavyweight]. I don’t want to fight in this weight class anymore.’ Him moving up is exciting.” 

Chimaev looked to have had a lot of trouble in getting down to 185 pounds for the fight with Strickland, to the point where some claimed the fight was rigged in favor of Chimaev as they didn’t believe he made weight but didn’t want to cancel the fight. White claimed Chimaev did make the weight, using Jeremy Stephens as an example of the theory of Chimaev missing weight being ridiculous as Stephens did miss weight for his fight with King Green. With UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Carlos Ulberg currently injured with a torn ACL, moving to 205 pounds could be a way for Chimaev to join the elite group of fighters who have won UFC gold in two divisions, and he would also become one of only a handful of fighters to fight in three divisions.

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White was also asked about the logistics of the event, specifically the fact that it’s the first outdoor UFC event since UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi back in 2010. White explained that the company is working with the US military to make sure they know the weather forecast long before the event takes place, but if there is a chance of lightning, which would be the only thing that causes the event to be stopped, White believes that everything will be in place to fight the biggest opponent of the event, mother nature.

“So we could move the event two hours earlier, two hours after. These are all things that we’ll be playing with the week of the event on top of all the other things that we’ll have going on, which we never had to deal with. The only time I’d ever agreed to do an outdoor event was in Abu Dhabi, which, I could be the weatherman in Abu Dhabi, and I would be right every time.”

The Concert Arena in Abu Dhabi that played host to UFC 112 was torn down the week after the event took place, something that will also happen after UFC Freedom 250 takes place. However, as White said, the company will be at the mercy of mother nature when it comes to the weather, but confirmed that even in wind, rain, or snow, the UFC will host the biggest MMA event in history.

Please credit FOX News when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.