Conor McGregor claims that Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone was first on his long list of potential fights for his UFC return.
In his first interview since late October, the Dubliner revealed why he chose to fight the American in his return bout after losing to Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018.
But the former UFC two-weight champion claimed that he has other names in mind that he'd like to fight in the future after he gets the January 18th fight out of the way.
“Me and Donald had a history for a while, right?” McGregor told his own news site, The Mac Life.
“And I did say I’d fight him. If you look at the list of call outs, or the people who I’ve engaged with, Donald was probably one of the first ones. So he’s first on the list, and that’s it. And I’ll get to every single one of them also.”
Many fans were surprised to see the pair go at it at 170 pounds, but the 31-year-old has cleared up why he's not fighting at his usual lightweight category - revealing what he hopes to achieve in 2020.
“First of all, [170 is] what I weigh right now,” McGregor added.
“What’s the lightweight title fight on? April is it? Why cut weight to [155]? Likely something will happen there, so I’ll be ready to slot in for that bout. I’ll just have a fight.
"A good solid camp at 170 with no weight cut, a good fight, I know Donald’s a good fighter, great records. Most knockdowns, most head kicks, most fights, most rounds, he’s got a lot of UFC records under his belt so I’ll get a great camp, a great fight, and it’ll take me into the year.
“I’m looking at this as a season, so this is the beginning of the season. Donald was the first one that I agreed to have a bout with, and here we are.”
It comes after John Kavanagh jetted off to Las Vegas today, with the Notorious one is set to join him in the US soon.
The SBG supremo took to Twitter to share a snap as he prepared to jet off from Heathrow Airport to Sin City.
In the tweet, Kavanagh said: "Vegas here we come! #sincity #MILEHIGHCLUB ".
Meanwhile, McGregor himself took to Instagram earlier today to share a picture of him looking relaxed on a couch ahead of the bout.
McGregor will reportedly also be ready to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov if Tony Ferguson can't make their bout.
Khabib v Ferguson has been cancelled four times over the years due to injuries or weight cutting issues.
McGregor is desperate for another shot an Nurmagomedov after losing to him in his last bout and Dana White believes the Dubliner will be ready to step in to fight the lightweight champion if something goes wrong.
The UFC President said: “Conor wants to fight three times this year.
“He's hoping that if he beats Cowboy, he can turn right around and fight Khabib, but that timing and math isn't going to work out.
“But you know Conor. Conor thinks the way Conor thinks.
“His thing is, I'll fight Cowboy, I'll beat Cowboy, and I'll be ready to fight Khabib at 155 if anything happens, because we're going into Khabib-Tony again.
“So Conor would be ready for that fight.”
