Conor McGregor will either make his return to the octagon on December 14 in Las Vegas or early next year.
This is according to UFC chief Dana White who has ruled out a homecoming fight in Dublin.
The Notorious appeared to indicate his preference for his next bout this week when tweeting: "Dublin, December 14th".
But White can't see this happening as there is already a UFC event booked for the same date at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Asked when is McGregor going to fight next in a Twitter Q&A session, White said: "I'm sure you saw his tweet. Conor wants to fight on December 14 in Dublin, but we have a fight in Vegas.
"So if he doesn't fight on that card, he will fight early next year."
McGregor has not fought since losing in a fourth round submission to Khabib Nurmagomedov last October.
An it comes as Jorge Masvidal has claimed that a fight with McGregor would end up in a murder charge.
The welterweight is getting primed for a showdown with McGregor's rival Nate Diaz in November.
And like many fighters, Masvidal has also been linked with a fight with the Notorious in the past.
But the 34-year-old has claimed that UFC chief Dana White warned the pairing could have deadly consequences.
Masvidal said on ESPN's "Get Up" on Thursday: "That fight, the president [Dana White] deemed it not good because they don't want a murder charge on me.
"So they're not going to allow that to happen. The president himself already said it, so, I don't want to go to jail for killing nobody. That's not what I want to do. I'm here to compete.
"The president said that we can't compete because I'm too much man. That can't happen. We're different spectrums. They're not going to allow that to happen."
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