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Dana White Sends Huge Warning To Illegal Streamers Ahead Of Conor McGregor's UFC 257 Return

Dana White Sends Huge Warning To Illegal Streamers Ahead Of Conor McGregor's UFC 257 Return

McGregor's return will be lucrative for UFC and White is desperate to clamp down on illegal streams.

Daniel Marland

Daniel Marland

UFC president Dana White has sent a warning to illegal streamers ahead of Conor McGregor's return - telling them he has a 'surprise' in store.

McGregor returns to the Octagon on January 23rd at UFC 257 and he'll take on Dustin Poirier in the main event.

It promises to be a lucrative fight for the UFC in terms of pay-per-view numbers. But one fan commented on White's Instagram saying: "Can't wait to pirate the fuxk [sic] out of this thanks Dana I'm excited."

White replied to the comment and fired back with: "And I can't wait to catch u!!! Gotta a surprise for u motherf**kers this year."


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PA

Illegal streaming is something combat sports has been battling for years but no clear workaround has been found.

It is believed a method to fine fans who illegally streamed McGregor's boxing bout with Floyd Mayweather was explored back in 2017.

The Daily Mail reported those streaming fight through an unofficial source saw a watermark pop up on their feed with a random selection of letters and numbers.

That mystery code, according to TorrentFreak - an online publication dedicated to news about copyright and file-sharing - was quite possibly placed there by licensed broadcasters in order to track down pirates.

A message on the site read: "The numbers would allow (the broadcaster) to track the illicit stream back to a subscriber and/or a set-top box tied to a particular account.

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"Since that subscriber has then re-streamed that content back online illegally, the code would act as a homing beacon and could spell bad news for the individual involved."

While McGregor hasn't got past Poirier yet, White is already thinking about what's next for 'The Notorious'.

He revealed that "in a perfect world" McGregor will renew his rivalry with Khabib Nurmagomedov in the future.

'The Eagle' is currently retired after walking away from the promotion following his victory over Justin Gaethje at UFC 254.

But White hopes to lure him out of retirement when they meet on the week of McGregor's return.

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"When I fly out there, Khabib's going to be there, too. So, I'm going to meet with Khabib while I'm there," the 51-year-old said.

"In a perfect world, if Conor wins this fight, I would love to see the rematch with him and Khabib. It's the fight that makes sense."

Nurmagomedov and McGregor clashed at UFC 229 in October 2018, where the Dagestan star submitted the Irishman in the fourth round.

Featured Image Credit: PA Images

Topics: Conor Mcgregor, Dustin Poirier, UFC News, MMA News, UFC 257, UFC, MMA, Dana White

Daniel is a journalist for SPORTbible and he has previous experience with Manchester United. He has spoken to some of the biggest names in sport including Rio Ferdinand, Peter Crouch, WWE COO Triple H and WWE legend The Undertaker. May or may not do a decent impression of Jamie Carragher.

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@DanMarland_