Chael Sonnen claims Conor McGregor had Bellator star lined up for Croke Park fight

As Brendan Schaub joked this week, 'Conor McGregor could fight Dada 5000 and sell out Croke Park'.

Such is the gigantic interest in 'The Notorious' that he would fancy his chances of selling out Croke Park on the back of his name alone. McGregor admitted, earlier this year, that fighting at the GAA headquarters was still high on his agenda. The remainder of 2016 originally looked like this: UFC 200 in July against Nate Diaz and UFC 202 or 203 against the winner of Frankie Edgar and Jose Aldo. After that, McGregor was seriously eyeing up future fight's on America's East Coast and in his hometown of Dublin. However, his publicity impasse with UFC officials may rip that schedule up entirely. https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/723592753813303296 McGregor has also expressed his loyalty to Zuffa Promotions in recent months but it has not quelled talk of the Dubliner setting himself up as a fight promoter. Former UFC star Chael Sonnen has taken up that theme and thrown in a sensational claim about a likely opponent. On his Beyond the Fight podcast, Sonnen said:

"Benson Henderson was floating around, he wasn't under contract with anybody. Now he's under contract with Bellator, but for a minute he wasn't. "Conor thought 'Well look, I'm gonna do my own promotion, I can sell out Croke Park right in my hometown. I can find some TV sponsor to partner up with me, and I've got an opponent, his name is Ben Henderson'."

Henderson [23-6] is a former UFC lightweight champion. After 14 fights with the promotion - against the likes of Rafael dos Anjos, Nate Diaz and Frankie Edgar - Henderson jumped ship to Bellator, earlier this year. He was immediately given a welterweight title shot, against Andrey Koreshkov but lost that, last night, in a unanimous points decision. As per usual, everything Sonnen says needs to be taken with a pinch of salt but his claims often contain some nuggets of truth.