The hunt for a new main event for UFC 200 is underway.
It’s looking increasingly likely that Conor McGregor won’t be fighting on the UFC’s landmark event on July 9.
The featherweight champion was scheduled to take on Nate Diaz in a welterweight do-over in the headline bout, but the proverbial hit the fan after he sent out a retirement tweet earlier this week. McGregor was subsequently pulled from the card and shortly after he announced he hadn’t actually retired, UFC 200’s main event was changed on the official website.
Ur call now. You are the customers. What do you want? Press conferences or fights? Make some noise because we're ready to do the damn thing!
— Coach JK (@John_Kavanagh) April 21, 2016
According to McGregor, he wants to fight at UFC 200, but doesn’t want to do an excessive amount of media work to promote it if it affects his training.
It appears as though the UFC are not bending to McGregor’s demands. Undefeated UFC lightweight star Khabib Nurmagomedov claimed during a recent interview with Match TV (transcribed by Bloody Elbow) that he had been asked to fill in for McGregor on the card.
“Yesterday the UFC called me with a proposal to hold the main bout of the evening against Nate Diaz, or against Georges St-Pierre. They hope that I will take the fight. But it is four days after the month of Ramadan, and it would be hard physically to fight five rounds. I’ll be back in September and October.”
Ramadan in 2016 starts at the beginning of June and will continue for 30 days. With UFC 200 taking place on July 9th, devout Muslim Khabib is unlikely to feature on the card.
