'Something has to give'… Conor McGregor backed by ex-UFC star in dispute with DAZN over broadcast deal
Yesterday at 07:57 AM
Brendan Schaub has reacted to Conor McGregor's public condemnation of his Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship [BKFC] broadcast partner.
The Irishman became a part-owner in the fledgling combat sports promotion earlier this year, and ever since he's been heavily promoting it on his personal social media accounts.
Conor McGregor has become known for his wild reactions to BKFC knockouts.
Now he's redirected his energy at DAZN for mistreating the bare-knuckle fighters.
Conor McGregor threatens to scrap BKFC broadcast deal
On Saturday night, Conor McGregor was spending a lot of time with DAZN as he tuned into the Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury heavyweight title fight, before switching over to the non-pay-per-view BKFC show.
There, he was treated to a night of knockouts and other action, although one issue emerged. After the fights were done, the promotion just moved along seemingly without giving the fighters a chance to be interviewed.
This seemed to irk McGregor, who voiced his displeasure in an explicit social media rant.
"DAZN I DONT GIVE A F***," he tweeted. "IF YOU DONT GET OUR WINNERS ON THE MIC WE ARE DONE!"
Brendan Schaub is a former UFC heavyweight contender, who understands the importance of fighters getting their big moment on the mic after they win.
However, since retiring from MMA, he's become involved in the entertainment business, so he also gets that DAZN's lack of post-fight interviews is most likely due to a lack of time rather than a lack of respect.
Still, he believes that winning fighters must be given the chance to speak in 2025.
"Maybe it's a time constraint thing on the broadcast," Schaub said.
"It's like, 'We just can't, dude. They gave us this short amount of time’.
"So, it's we interview the winner and have less fights, but something has got to give here."
BKFC launches $25million tournament
Post-fight BKFC interviews will be more important than ever next year as it's been announced that the stakes have been extraordinarily ramped up.
On Saturday, McGregor's business partner, Dave Feldman, revealed $25million will be up for grabs as he provided some details about a new tournament – but he stopped short of breaking down exactly how it will play out.
"We're going to have the biggest, baddest fight tournament that ever took place, and it's going to start in April and it's going to be the $25 million world's baddest tournament," Feldman said.
"Everyone has to try out for it. No one is getting pre-qualified. They have to try out for it and they're going to have to fight in qualifying rounds to make the tournament.
"I mean, it's not a joke purse it's a real purse, so they have to really fight."
"It's going to spread out between nine or 12 months. Like I said, there's going to be try-outs, qualifying rounds. Those qualifying rounds are going to take place in five different continents.
"We're close to locking in a huge streaming platform that's going to have the rights to this thing, so everything is really falling in place.
"You know, I opened my big mouth about the tournament before everything was done, so I can't give you all the details, but I will tell you it will be the biggest, baddest, biggest iprize money to find the baddest motherf***er on the face of this Earth."
