Conor McGregor has been accused of 'ducking' Justin Gaethje ahead of his UFC return.
The Notorious faces Donald Cerrone on January 18 in what will be his first fight in 15 months.
A bout with Gaethje had appeared to be the most obvious move as McGregor sizes up another challenge for the 155lb title, reports The Mirror.
But instead he will take on veteran Cerrone who appears on paper to be a far less formidable opponent.
And the manager of current lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, who choked out McGregor in 2018, believes Gaethje is being avoided.
“What about guys like Justin Gaethje?” Ali Abdelaziz asked TMZ. “He’s been winning and knocking people out. Logically, he is (the next top contender).
"He’s ranked No.3. [The] No.2, Dustin Poirier, fought for the title. That’s the only fight that makes sense for him, for his career, to fight the champion.
“Listen, Conor does not want to have to do anything with Gaethje. We understand, like I said, Gaethje takes a lot of people into deep water.
"We understand Conor is a quitter – he quit when he was in deep water. The UFC made the right choice not to (have Conor) fight Gaethje, because he would have beat his ass. Simple.”
McGregor, however, insists Gaethje is on his "list" of potential opponents as he plans to fight three times in a year for the first time since 2016.
"Me and Donald have had a history and I have said I'd fight him," he told The Mac Life.
"If you look at the list of people I've called out and engaged with, Donald was probably one of the first ones. He's first on the list, I'll get to every single one of them also.
"Justin is also on the list, maybe I will face him next. He has it coming, he's a funny guy; he's been taking it to heart and I know the feeling when you do that.
"Maybe I'll go through Donald and have a quick turnaround against Justin, but he's on the list, no doubt."
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