Donald Cerrone has made no bones about wanting to fight Conor McGregor? But then again, who wouldn’t? McGregor is the biggest draw in mixed martial arts and anytime he fights, some of his wealth spills over onto his opponent.
But as much as Cerrone might want a fight with McGregor for his return to the lightweight division, UFC president Dana White insists that there is currently no movement toward making that fight happen.
“That’s not true; absolutely not true. Obviously that’s the fight that Cowboy Cerrone wants, but that’s not true,” White told TMZ Sports. “We haven’t even thought about an opponent for either one of those guys yet, meaning Khabib and Conor.”
Current lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and McGregor are slated to go before the Nevada State Athletic Commission in December to learn of any sanctions the commission might impose upon them for their actions in a post-fight melee at UFC 229.
Nurmagomedov defeated McGregor in the UFC 229 main event, and then leapt over the Octagon fence to chase down McGregor teammate Dillon Danis after a longstanding feud between the two camps boiled over.
In all likelihood, Nurmagomedov and McGregor, as well as a few of their teammates, are looking at various suspensions and fines and won’t even be eligible to fight for some period of time. Thus why White says that it is futile to be considering the next fight for Nurmagomedov or McGregor.
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“We’re not even thinking about it. It’s not even worth talking about because we don’t know how long the suspension is going to be, what their fines are going to be, we don’t know the penalties yet,” White said. “So you can’t even think about fights until you know what the penalties are.”
If McGregor doesn’t face any significant time on the sidelines, of course, the idea of a bout with Cerrone could be revisited, as it doesn’t appear that Cerrone is going to let the bout slip away without at least trying to lasso it in. But as of right now, there’s still about a month of waiting before the commission determines each of their fates.
