While it can’t be considered anything other than speculation at this point, UFC president Dana White has confirmed that exploratory discussions are underway as to Conor McGregor’s next fight in the UFC.
Speaking at a Q&A event at Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, White said that McGregor’s return to the Octagon “will be in Vegas” and “could be” the headliner of the UFC 219 event slated for December 30th in the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, as per respected journalist Lance Pugmire of the LA Times.
UFC 219 is currently without a main event and given the fact that the UFC traditionally likes to stack their final event of the calendar year with a host of top talent, a match-up between McGregor and current interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson would very much fit the bill.
Dana White says he’ll hash out the UFC 219 main event for Las Vegas by the end of the week and said @TheNotoriousMMA return “will be in Vegas” and “could be” on that Dec. 30 date.
— Lance Pugmire (@latimespugmire) November 8, 2017
Given that White has said that Las Vegas will be location for McGregor’s return to action, that rules out the UFC’s event in Boston early next year as a potential venue. The UFC will return to Vegas for UFC 223 in March.
It is approaching a year since McGregor won the UFC’s lightweight title in New York with a second round knockout of Eddie Alvarez, after which he took time out from mixed martial arts for the birth of his first child and his boxing debut against Floyd Mayweather in August.
The card already features a bantamweight contender match-up between Dominick Cruz and Jimmie Rivera, as well as a hugely intriguing clash between top lightweights Khabib Nurmagomedov and Edson Barboza.
