Former UFC lightweight and featherweight champ Conor McGregor has long campaigned for an ownership stake in the UFC. In fact, he did so as recently as earlier this month.

“I’m ready to fight, I’ve said that. No problem,” McGregor said at a recent Q&A in Chicago (via BJPenn.com’s Mike Pendleton). “If the UFC wants me to slide into that co-main event slot and help, what that is, if I slide into the co-main event it’s boosting their brand over fighter rhetoric that they have. There’s no problem with that. If they want me to push that and I have no problem pushing that, give me my rightful shares in the UFC company. That’s all I ask. You can put me on the first fight of ESPN+ but just give me my shares. So, we’ll see what happens.”

According to UFC President Dana White, however, it’s simply never going to happen. Not unless McGregor buys his desired shares.

“Conor has never come out, sat down with me, and said, ‘I want a piece of the company, here’s why,’” White told TMZ (h/t BloodyElbow). “We’ve never had that conversation. We did it in text two weeks ago.

“He said, ‘I feel like I should own a piece of the company.’ And I said, ‘Conor, you know that’s never going to happen.’

“If you want to own a piece of the company, you’d have to put up the money to buy a piece of the company,” White concluded. “That’s how it works.”

Do you think Conor McGregor will ever get his desired stake in the UFC company?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 3/27/2019.