Henry Cejudo wants Dana White to do the one thing nobody in the UFC front office has ever done with Conor McGregor: say no to him.
On a recent episode of his Pound 4 Pound podcast, sitting next to fellow former champ Kamaru Usman, Cejudo laid out a plan that sounds insane until you actually run the numbers. McGregor has one fight left on his UFC deal. Cejudo’s pitch is to skip it, release him and let the most expensive fighter in company history become a free agent.
“I would cut him. I swear to you I would,” Cejudo said, and then he got specific about why.
I think he’s right. I also think the UFC will never do it, which is exactly why it’s worth arguing about.
The math changed and McGregor’s price tag didn’t
Cejudo’s best point is about the money pipeline. McGregor’s whole economic value was built on pay-per-view buys, back when every Notorious fight meant millions of people forking over cash on fight night. That model is gone. The UFC has its Paramount deal now, and Cejudo hammered on that.
“There’s no more pay-per-view model, and this dude hasn’t won a fight,” he said.
That line is blunt, and it lands. Cejudo said he believes McGregor got paid $30 million for the Max Holloway fight, and that’s roughly what he’d expect the final fight on the contract to cost. Under the old system, that $30 million came back to the UFC in buys. Under a broadcast deal, the check gets written whether McGregor fights or not. Paying him $30 million on top of that is like keeping the premium cable package after you already bought the streaming bundle that includes the same channels.
Cejudo also made the point that the deals are locked. “These contracts are already said and done,” he said, meaning McGregor can’t wave a bigger buyrate in the UFC’s face to squeeze out more. The leverage he used to have has evaporated.
UFC 329 was the warning shot
The UFC 329 numbers cut both ways, and you need to be honest about that. The July 11 card at T-Mobile Arena did a record-setting gate, so yes, McGregor still sells out the building. If you’re arguing to keep him, that’s your exhibit A.
But look at what the fans actually got for that money. McGregor had waited five years to come back to the Octagon, and the night ended with him suffering a brutal knee injury against Holloway. MMA Mania described fans as massively disappointed, which is putting it gently. Cejudo was harsher: “his last fight wasn’t even a fight. He lost again.”
A record gate is a one-night number. The disappointment sticks around. If the UFC books him again and the knee goes, or something else goes, MMA Mania noted it would be the third fight in a row ending in injury. At some point the people buying those record-gate tickets stop believing the show is going to happen. That’s a real cost, even if it never shows up on a balance sheet.
And McGregor won’t even be back until later next year, per MMA Mania. So the UFC is being asked to hold a $30 million slot open for an aging, injured fighter coming off a loss, on a timeline nobody can promise.
He’s leaving anyway
This is the part that seals it for me. McGregor has already said he plans to try bareknuckle boxing after his next UFC fight. The exit is announced. The UFC would be paying $30 million for a farewell, and Cejudo’s version just moves the farewell up and keeps the cash in the vault.
“Let him make more money elsewhere, but let him not make money or take money from us,” Cejudo said.
Selfishly, I love that outcome. You know I’m a sucker for big-money crossover chaos, and McGregor in bareknuckle is the most McGregor thing imaginable. He’d get to run the circus on his own terms, sooner, with his knee hopefully rebuilt. The UFC keeps the money. Everybody gets the spectacle they actually wanted.
Cejudo’s scenario was simple. He imagined the UFC telling McGregor, “We don’t think you’re worth that. You’re a free agent.” Then he added, “Just let him leave with the loss in the UFC.”
That second line is cold, and it’s also correct business. The UFC has spent a decade acting like McGregor is the exception to every rule. The Paramount deal is the first time the company genuinely doesn’t need him to hit its numbers.
Why it won’t happen
Dana White will not cut the man who just set a gate record. That’s the reality. The UFC loves a sure-thing sellout more than it loves saving money, and there’s real fear about McGregor’s farewell happening in someone else’s ring with someone else’s logo on the canvas.
I get it. I still think Cejudo has the smarter read. When a guy’s last fight ended with a wrecked knee, his comeback is penciled in for sometime next year and he’s told you he’s leaving for bareknuckle anyway, cutting him is the cheapest way to let him go.
