UFC President Dana White has seemingly ruled out the prospect of McGregor facing the winner of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dustin Poirier.
The Notorious' old foe Nurmagomedov is facing Poirier at UFC 242 in a lightweight unification fight.
The eagerly awaited bout, scheduled for September 7, will be Nurmagomedov's much anticipated return to the Octagon following his suspension resulting from the chaotic scenes in the aftermath of his 4th round submission of McGregor at UFC 229.
Poirier, who McGregor defeated back in September 2014, capitalised on Nurmagomedov's suspension by seizing the UFC interim lightweight belt following a win via unanimous decision over Max Holloway earlier this year.
Since his loss to McGregor, Poirier has been slowly ascending the ranks in UFC having accumulated nine wins since being knocked out by the Irishman, notably embarking on an impressive five fight win streak defeating the likes of Anthony Pettis, Justin Gaethje, Eddie Alvarez and the UFC featherweight champion, Max Holloway.
However, despite the history McGregor has with both opponents, White has ruled out McGregor skipping the queue and facing whoever is victorious, but did hint the Irish MMA star will return soon.
“I think he’ll either be back this year or early next year,” White said. “We’ll see how this whole thing plays out in September.
"No, (he doesn’t get the Nurmagomedov-Poirier winner), but it’ll shake a lot of things up, whoever wins that fight.”
White also dismissed rumours that welterweight Jorge Masvidal is next in line for McGregor. Masvidal called out the Notorious after he emphatically knocked out Ben Askren with a flying knee inside just 5 seconds at UFC 239.
“Masvidal’s too big for Conor,” White said.
“(McGregor) shouldn’t have (fought at 170). I hated that he did it. Not only did I hate that he did it once, I hated that he did it twice. There’s plenty of fights for (Masvidal) in his weight division without Conor.
"He’s too big for Conor. Conor doesn’t belong at 170. He’s got the balls to fight at 170, but he doesn’t belong there. Hell no, (it won’t happen).”
Despite the UFC president narrowing down the Dubliner's potential opponents, The Notorious seems to have plenty of options to mull over prior to returning to the octagon.
Justin Gaethje seems to be the one who fans feel would provide the most exciting fight, stylistically, for McGregor. The no. 5 ranked lightweight is in fine form following two impressive knock out performances against James Vick and Edson Barboza.
Riding a 12 fight win streak, Tony Ferguson can consider himself unlucky to have not got in the octagon with Nurmagomedov or McGregor yet but 'El Cucuy' earned a hard fought win over Donald Cerrone in June of this year and fans expect him to face the winner of Khabib and Poirier in 2020.
UFC veteran Donald Cerrone and the final round to the Nate Diaz trilogy have also been rumoured to be Irishman's next engagement. However, Diaz is set to face Anthony Pettis on August 17 and negotiations for a bout between McGregor and Cerrone apparently fell through earlier this year.
If you haven't already, be sure to like our Irish Mirror Sport and Irish Mirror GAA pages on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
