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Conor McGregor’s coach jokingly shut down Dana White’s hilarious pitch for a super fight at chaotic landmark UFC event

Originally posted on Bloody Elbow | By Kyle Dimond | Last updated Jul 9, 2025 10:22 PM ET

In the build-up to UFC 200, which took place on this day in 2016, Conor McGregor’s involvement seemed like a guarantee.

In the same way that the likes of Jon Jones have registered their interest in fighting at the UFC’s event at the White House, UFC 200 attracted some of the biggest names in the sport.

A card of this magnitude was always going to be a massive night for the sport, with UFC 100 setting a high bar thanks to the involvement of Georges St-Pierre and Brock Lesnar among others.

UFC 200 may have ended with a statement performance that would go on to hold an important place in the history of the sport, but it wasn’t the kind of blockbuster main event that the promotion attempted to put together.

Months before July 9 came around, Dana White joked about drafting in a fighter who could face McGregor at the landmark event.

Dana White joked that he’d sign Spider-Man street fighter to face Conor McGregor at UFC 200

Speculation about what fight could headline UFC 200 started long before the weeks leading up to the event.

With Conor McGregor being the biggest star in the history of the sport, it made a lot of sense for ‘The Notorious’ to headline the card, with a rematch against Nate Diaz looking likely.

However, Dana White had another idea that he expressed via a comical post on Twitter, now X.

There’s a good chance that if you’ve been a fight fan for a while, you’ve seen the video of an MMA fight that took place between three costumed fighters.

Representing Marvel, Spider-Man decimated his DC rivals Batman and Robin in a bizarre two-on-one handicap match where the web-slinger was at a sizable skill advantage.

White joked that the popular hero could become your friendly neighborhood UFC fighter in order to face off with ‘The Notorious’ in a battle for the ages at UFC 200.

Unfortunately, the UFC CEO’s pitch wasn’t supported by McGregor’s coach, John Kavanagh, who wrote in response that he would refuse to corner against New York’s finest.

@danawhite @TheNotoriousMMA @ufc @lorenzofertitta I'm not cornering against spiderman #Marvel4Life
— Coach JK (@John_Kavanagh) January 2, 2016

The UFC could have done with a hero like Spider-Man following the chaotic road to UFC 200

While UFC 200 was still a strong PPV event for the promotion, it will be best remembered for the issues that it faced before July 9 finally arrived.

Conor McGregor’s rematch with Nate Diaz was expected to take place on the card until the Irishman was removed from the event entirely after Dana White claimed that he refused to attend a press conference.

Jon Jones’ rematch with Daniel Cormier was booked as the replacement but this was also removed after ‘Bones’ was pulled from the bout due to a potential drug policy violation.

With just three days to adapt to this change, there wasn’t much the promotion could do to alter the card, leading to Miesha Tate vs Amanda Nunes being the main event.

This article first appeared on Bloody Elbow and was syndicated with permission.

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