White: Waiting Is ‘Smartest Move’ For McGregor
UFC president Dana White maintains the best move for Conor McGregor at this point is to wait and see how things play out.
McGregor returned to action earlier this year in January when he quickly disposed of Donald Cerrone in just 40 seconds. Leading up to that fight, the Irishman spoke of how he wanted to have an active season in 2020.
However, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic along with Justin Gaethje winning the interim lightweight title last month put a halt to those plans. Gaethje is now expected to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov in a title unification fight planned for September although nothing is certain.
McGregor, meanwhile, has called to face Gaethje next while he has also been linked with potential fights with the likes of Jorge Masvidal, Nate Diaz, Kamaru Usman and even Anderson Silva.
But for White, the “smartest move” right now is to simply wait for the winner of the Nurmagomedov vs. Gaethje fight.
“I think that the best thing for him – I’m not saying this is what’s going to happen – but in my opinion he lets this Gaethje-Khabib fight play out, then he fights the winner,” White said in a recent podcast appearance with Eddie Hearn and Tony Bellew (via MMA Junkie). “I think that’s the smartest move for him.”
That said, White isn’t ruling out McGregor fighting someone else in the meantime.
If the former two-weight champion has to wait for the winner of the lightweight title unification fight, he could end up waiting almost a year to compete again. That wouldn’t be ideal for someone who was looking to remain active this year.
“You know him. Maybe he wants to fight before that and if he does, we can figure something out,” he added. “But I think that’s the move for him right now.”
If that is the case, McGregor always has options.
