UFC president Dana White has other ideas for Conor McGregor and Jorge Masvidal.
Masvidal was in attendance Saturday at UFC 246 to watch McGregor fight Donald Cerrone in the headliner, hoping for one particular outcome: a McGregor victory, so he can get his big-money fight.
Masvidal was wearing the same Versace robe that McGregor wore during the lead-up to his Floyd Mayweather boxing bout, trying to send a message to McGregor that he is here and waiting.
Despite McGregor getting the job done in spectacular fashion by finishing Cerrone in under a minute, White said at the post-fight news conference that McGregor (22-4 MMA, 10-2 UFC) vs. “BMF” champion Masvidal (35-13 MMA, 12-6 UFC) is not the top fight he wants to make.
White has other matchups in mind for both guys.
“If Conor and Masvidal fight, neither one of them even have a title, although Conor does want his ‘BMF’ title,” White said. “But he doesn’t have a world championship, so Khabib’s the fight to make. It’s huge for Khabib’s legacy, too. I mean, if he beats Conor McGregor, then he beats Tony Ferguson, then he beats Conor McGregor again, this is how this kid, when he retires, he’s 30-something and 0, and he’s beat all the best. Me, you and everybody else knows that’s the fight to make. That’s the fight. The (other) fight is Masvidal and Usman.”
White initially expressed his concerns about McGregor fighting at welterweight, saying Masvidal would be too big for him, but he admits that after McGregor’s performance on Saturday night, he’s done doubting him.
“I was blown away,” White said. “He looked unbelievable. You won’t hear another peep out of me about fighting at 170. I know that there’s always critics, and there’s always somebody that has an opinion. People are going to say that ‘Cowboy’ was shot, which is total bull(expletive), and Conor McGregor came out, he looked fast, he hit hard, he had a gameplan, and he finished a real tough kid who came to win.”
McGregor has a line of fighters looking to get their hands on McGregor, but if it was up to White only, the Khabib Nurmagomedov rematch is next.
UFC lightweight champ Nurmagomedov submitted McGregor in a pretty dominant performance at UFC 229, but with the bad blood brewing in the lead-up and the brawl that ensued after, it appears there’s unfinished business.
“When you look at what makes sense, we’re at a place where Conor was saying going into the Khabib fight, he had lots of personal stuff, some stuff self-inflicted,” White said. “He had injuries. He had all these things going on, and he has been obsessed with getting that rematch because he knows that he wasn’t 100 percent right.
“When you look at this for Khabib, Khabib is 28-0. He’s undefeated, right? You start talking about this kid’s legacy – first of all, to go 28-0 in this sport, I don’t care who you fought, it’s tough to do, right? This guy is a world champion, and after tonight and with how Khabib won the first time and how famous Khabib has become since that first fight, we’re looking at like Hagler-Hearns. We’re looking at Ali-Foreman, Ali-Frazier. This is a massive fight with global appeal. It’s the fight that you make. It’s the fight that makes sense. It’s for the 155-pound title.”
But first, Nurmagomedov has to get through Tony Ferguson at UFC 249 on April 18, which means a potential rematch between him and McGregor, wouldn’t happen until fall.
With McGregor’s plan for an active year, he could end up competing again before the final quarter of the year.
Why Conor McGregor vs. Jorge Masvidal isn't the fight Dana White wants to make
