Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor: Dana White reveals key Ice Cube negotiations running smoothly

The UFC president revealed discussions with the rapper Ice Cube over the use of the T-Mobile Arena on August 26 are 'running smoothly and in the right direction'

When Floyd Mayweather’s much anticipated boxing match against Conor McGregor was announced last one month, there was still one significant problem that needed to be solved: the 20,000-capacity T-Mobile Arena scheduled to host the blockbuster fight had been double booked.

Rapper Ice Cube had already booked the venue for his BIG3 basketball league on the night of August 26, and quickly claimed he had little intention of rescheduling.

However, UFC president Dana White has revealed the negotiations with the rapper are running smoothly and that he expects an agreement to be worked out between the two parties very soon, adding that the issue was “blown way out of proportion” anyway.

“The Ice Cube thing was blown way out of proportion,” White said in an interview with website MMA Junkie.

“Ice Cube and I got that whole thing squashed. The reality was that Ice Cube thought that I was talking s*** about him or that Floyd was talking s*** about him. Dude, I’m the biggest Ice Cube fan in the world, man. He’s a great guy. I watched ‘NWA’ 25,000 times. I’m a huge Ice Cube fan.

“He and I talked, and we got the whole thing – I don’t want to say squashed because there was never anything there – but we got it all worked out

“But that whole thing with Ice Cube was being blown way out of proportion, number one. And number two, everything is smooth and going in the right direction.”

The Arena has staged several UFC events (Getty ) (Getty)

After his initial stance that he would not reschedule his event, Ice Cube appeared to reconsider his position. Late last month, he claimed he would be willing to move his event if he was paid compensation from the organisers of the Mayweather v McGregor bout.

“Of course,” he said live on television when asked if a monetary solution could convince him to vacate the T-Mobile Arena on August 26. “If they do what they’re supposed to do and make us happy, yeah we’ll move.”

The T-Mobile Arena, situated on the Las Vegas Strip, opened in April 2016 and has a capacity of 20,000 for combat sports events – almost 3,000 seats more than the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Since opening, the venue has staged a number of marquee boxing events, including Canelo Álvarez vs Amir Khan and Sergey Kovalev vs Andre Ward, as well as UFC 200, 202, 207 and 209.