Dana White has insisted Conor McGregor will not fight again in the UFC this year, but could return in 2021.
The Notorious announced his retirement for the third time in four years in June before recently suggesting on social media that he had accepted a bout.
McGregor has been linked with a number of opponents since his 40-second demolition of Donald Cerrone in January in both MMA and boxing, but a rematch with Khabib Nurmagomedov is understood to remain his preference.
UFC President White has poured cold water on the prospect of the Dubliner fighting again this year, but hasn't ruled out the former two-weight champion returning in 2021.
"He doesn’t have a fight this year, and he won’t have a fight this year. Conor McGregor will not fight in 2020," he told the My Mom's Basement podcast.
"I’m not saying he won’t fight in 2021, but I’m telling you we don’t have a fight planned for him in 2021. But I guarantee you he will not fight in 2020. Conor McGregor is retired.
“Do we all believe he’ll stay retired? I think most of us don’t believe that he’ll remain retired, but let me put it to you this way: I owe fighters that are under contract with me three fights a year.
"If I don’t deliver those three fights a year, I have to pay them. Conor McGregor is retired, whether people want to believe it or not.
"He is not fighting right now, so when he’s not fighting, I don’t even think about him or what he’s doing or any of that stuff on a business level.
"I’ll still shoot him a text personally, but on a business level, he’s out of the mix. He’s not fighting at all. So everybody keeps asking questions about him, and I’m like, ‘Manny Pacquiao? What the f*** are you talking about?"
