Another big UFC pay-per-view and another stream of social media commentary and interactions from Conor McGregor.
McGregor Khabib and their rematch could be happening sooner than most of us thought.
“He wants to come back.” The comments from UFC president Dana White about Conor McGregor after a night that saw Max Holloway add to his featherweight legacy.
Holloway was the unanimous decision winner over Frankie Edgar in the UFC 240 headliner and McGregor was watching that fight, and the rest of the card, closely.
Max looks as fresh as he has ever looked at 145lbs here before this bout begins.
I’m excited for this one guys!
Both men look fresh.
Let’s get ready to rumble!!!— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) July 28, 2019
Good clean fight. Congrats guys.
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) July 28, 2019
McGregor was glued to the action from the get-go and found time between fights to run back certain crucial moments of his UFC 229 loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov.
The Dubliner still retains a massive grá for the sport and, despite declaring his retirement intentions twice, he seems certain to return before the end of this year. There was serious talk of an Anthony Pettis fight this month before McGregor injured his hand, back in late May, and Pettis was signed to fight the returning Nate Diaz instead.
Many in the sport are expecting McGregor to return to action at UFC 244, which is set for Madison Square Garden in November, but ‘The Notorious’ appears to be readying himself for a September fight… if he is called upon to save the day.
In his UFC 240 post-fight press conference, White commented:
“Yeah, I talked to him last week. He wants to come back.
“Really what he’s doing is he’s looking to see how everything plays out in September. I was just saying out there that as of right now, Khabib and [Dustin] Poirier are fighting. You know how this business works – anything can happen and it usually does.
“So I think he’s just waiting to see how it all plays out, and does he have an opportunity somewhere to jump in and make something happen.”
Poirier is set to challenge Nurmagomedov for his lightweight title at UFC 242 in Abu Dhabi on September 7. It must be noted, however, that between both men there have been four fights scrubbed over the past three years that they were supposed to be involved in. Tony Ferguson was due to fight both of them before injury and, for Nurmagomedov, health complications over a severe weight cut intervened.
Should the main event go off without a hitch in Abu Dhabi, McGregor could be in play for a title fight against Poirier in November. Were Nurmagomedov win, he would be paired off with Ferguson [fifth time lucky!] while McGregor could take on the winner of Pettis vs. Diaz.
But, as White said, should ‘The Eagle’ of ‘Diamond’ not make it to UFC 242, McGregor appears willing to step up, and step in.
Away from the lightweight division, McGregor is convinced he could give welterweight knock-out machine Jorge Masvidal a good run. White already dismissed the notion and revealed to reporters that McGregor was none too pleased about that.
“Yeah, Masvidal’s too big for him, man,” said White.
“I think Masvidal is too big, Conor disagrees. Conor was not happy that I said Masvidal was too big for him.”
McGregor is 1-1 in the 170lbs division after splitting to compelling bouts against Diaz in 2016.
