Dana White Has 'Zero' Conor McGregor Regrets After Jon Jones' UFC 200 Removal

UFC President Dana White insisted he has no regrets about pulling Conor McGregor from the UFC 200 card despite the headline bout for Saturday's Las Vegas event being removed after Jon Jones' potential doping violation.

McGregor's fight with Nate Diaz was initially supposed to headline UFC 200, but it was replaced by interim light heavyweight champion Jones' bout with Daniel Cormier when the Irishman refused to fly to Las Vegas to do media duties, per ESPN.com's Brett Okamoto.

Despite the huge blow of having to remove UFC 200's headline act for a second time, White emphatically responded to John Kavanagh, McGregor's coach, when questioned about whether he had regrets over taking the Notorious off the card:

Per BBC Sport, the main event on Saturday will now be the heavyweight bout between American Brock Lesnar and New Zealander Mark Hunt.

Jones and light heavyweight champion Cormier were set to meet for the second time in a unification bout.

They previously met in January 2015, and Bones successfully defended his title before it was stripped from him and he was handed a suspension by the UFC after his involvement in a hit-and-run incident, per the Associated Press (via the Guardian).

One of the biggest stars in the sport, Jones, 28, had his ban lifted in October 2015 and returned to the Octagon in April, beating Ovince Saint Preux to take the interim title and set up a bout with Cormier.

It is unclear if and when Jones will fight again, but Jeff Novitzky, UFC vice president of athlete health and performance, was eager to point out that he will be subject to "a full fair legal review process" before any sanction is handed down, per BT Sport:

McGregor, 27, will be back in action at UFC 202 at Las Vegas' T-Mobile Arena on August 20.

He will fight Diaz, 31, at welterweight again, having suffered the first defeat of his UFC career against the American back in March following his step up from the featherweight division, where he remains the current champion.

Back in April, McGregor threw the MMA world into a meltdown when he sent out a tweet that appeared to indicate he was retiring from fighting:

However, per Okamoto, mid-May discussions between the Dubliner, White and UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta smoothed things over and set McGregor up to return to the Octagon and attempt to avenge his previous loss to Diaz at UFC 196.