While former UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta may no longer own the UFC, Lorenzo has continued to remain an active part of combat sports, however he has done so behind the scenes.

That’s according to Conor McGregor’s manager Audie Attar, who revealed on The MMA Hour that Fertitta was instrumental in helping aid negotiations between Team McGregor and Team Mayweather when discussing a potential boxing match. Now of course, fight fans know that the scrap between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor will go down on August 26th, something they apparently have Fertitta to thank for:

“I think Lorenzo Fertitta has been instrumental in a lot of different ways in Conor’s career,” Attar said. “And yes, he was very instrumental in putting us together to really get everybody to talk and get on the same page when everybody started to see this was a real viable business proposition.”

“I have a lot of respect for Lorenzo and i know he’s excited, but I think nonetheless this is something he’s very passionate about,” Attar said. “He cares a lot about the sport, he cares a lot about the UFC. And he cares a lot about Conor. It was really special for me to see that he was interested enough to try to at least to put all parties together so we can do good business.”

This of course confirms fan speculation that Fertitta worked with McGregor behind the scenes, despite selling the company, after McGregor posted a photo of he & Fertitta in Vegas:

I came up under Lorenzo Fertitta and the Fertitta regime. Nobody in the history of the fight game has come up as fast and as young as I have. I now, at 28 years of age, have my eyes firmly set on the 'highest paid fighter' and 'highest earning athlete' accolades. Understand and respect what you are witnessing here. Because not one of you can do nothing to stop it.

A post shared by Conor McGregor Official (@thenotoriousmma) on Feb 15, 2017 at 7:15pm PST

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/22/2017.