Photo by Chris Unger/DWCS LLC
“It would be a massive fight and it’s absolutely possible, yes,”
Unfortunately for Tony Ferguson, UFC president Dana White is still reluctant to declare ‘El Cucuy’ the next official No. 1 lightweight contender.
Speaking with Rich Eisen in a recent interview, White remained non-committal about confirming the UFC’s next lightweight title bout but teased that former two-division champ Conor McGregor could rematch Khabib Nurmagomedov upon his return, which White estimates will be sometime early next year.
“It’s a very interesting division because you have Khabib, you have Tony Ferguson, Conor McGregor, Donald Cerrone’s in the mix, Justin Gaethje – there’s just so many unbelievable fights in that weight class and Khabib keeps talking about fighting Georges St. Pierre again,” White said, per MMA Fighting’s Jed Meshew. “St-Pierre retired but when St-Pierre retired, he retired basically saying I won’t if I can fight Khabib. So there’s so many different, crazy, interesting things that we can do at that weight class.”
“It would be a massive fight and it’s absolutely possible, yes,” White said of a Khabib-McGregor rematch. “I think McGregor is gonna come back at the beginning of next year. So, realistically, all these guys are looking at September to see what happens with Khabib and Poirier. After that fight plays out, I think there’s gonna be a lot of movement going on.”
Nurmagomedov, 30, submitted Conor McGregor in the fourth round of the UFC 229 main event to retain his lightweight title and cement his status as one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
‘The Notorious’ recently claimed to have retired (again), but White says the SBG Ireland standout is still training hard in the gym every day.
“To Conor’s credit and defense, you don’t see Conor running around filming movies,” White said. “If you look at his – he’s in great shape, he’s staying in shape, he’s training, and he’s seeing how this thing plays out.”
Before there’s any serious talk of McGregor vs. Khabib II, White will wait to see out how Nurmagomedov vs. Poirier plays out at UFC 242. The pay-per-view extravaganza is scheduled to take place on September 7 at du Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.