LAS VEGAS – The question remains: Whom will Conor McGregor face next?
UFC president Dana White on Tuesday said McGregor’s next move will depend on what happens Saturday at UFC 241 between Nate Diaz and Anthony Pettis, as well as the lightweight title unification bout between champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and interim champ Dustin Poirier at UFC 242 next month.
“I don’t know,” White said after Dana White’s Contender Series 24 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. “That, I don’t know. See how Saturday goes, see how September goes, and then see what happens with Conor.”
McGregor (21-4 MMA, 9-2 UFC) has made it clear he’d like to run things back with Nurmagomedov. He lost by fourth-round submission to “The Eagle” at UFC 229 and failed to recapture the lightweight title he was stripped of for not defending (he took a lucrative boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. instead). A post-fight brawl ensued that left many wondering if there’s unfinished business between the two.
For now, he’ll have to wait. Nurmagomedov will attempt to make his second title defense when he takes on Poirier in the UFC 242 main event. The Diaz trilogy is another fight McGregor has mentioned he’s open to. The score currently is 1-1. Diaz notched a second-round submission win at UFC 196, flipping the MMA world upside down.
They ran it back at UFC 202, and McGregor narrowly edged Diaz by majority decision. Diaz is set to return after a three-year layoff when he takes on Pettis in the UFC 241 co-headliner on Saturday.
