Conor McGregor’s lengthy hiatus from the Octagon is in part down to the UFC’s failure to give him a lucrative new contract.
Negotiations between him and promotion are currently ongoing but an agreement has yet to be reached.
McGregor hasn’t fought since claiming the lightweight title in the main event of UFC 205 against Eddie Alvarez and hasn’t defended his lightweight title choosing instead to box Floyd Mayweather in a massive moneymaker, which he lost via tenth round stoppage.
UFC president Dana White told the BBC that he expects to see Conor Mcgregor back in the Octagon by August or September, and could very well face the winner of the upcoming lightweight bout between Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov in his comeback fight.
“Hopefully we’ll see him back in either August or September,” White said, per MMA Weekly’s Damon Martin. “Well we’ve got to see how things play out in that [lightweight] division. A lot of things are going to happen in the next several months in the 155-pound division. Coming up is going to be Tony Ferguson versus Khabib [Nurmagomedov] and the winner of that is who I would like to see Conor fight next.”
UFC 223 is set to take place April 7 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. with the main card on pay-per-view, Khabib Nurmagomedov will challenge interim lightweight champion, Tony Ferguson and Conor McGregor will be stripped of his belt once someone gets his hand raised.
