Dana White Doesn’t Want To Make Conor McGregor vs. Jorge Masvidal

Former two division UFC champion Conor McGregor picked up his first win in over three years by defeating Donald Cerrone in the main event of UFC 246.

A logical next opponent for McGregor could be Jorge Masvidal, but UFC President Dana White doesn’t want to make that fight.

“If Conor and Masvidal fight, neither one of them even have a title, although Conor does want his ‘BMF’ title,” White said at the UFC 246 post-fight press conference (via Farah Hannoun of MMA Junkie). “But he doesn’t have a world championship, so Khabib’s the fight to make. It’s huge for Khabib’s legacy, too. I mean, if he beats Conor McGregor, then he beats Tony Ferguson, then he beats Conor McGregor again, this is how this kid, when he retires, he’s 30-something and 0, and he’s beat all the best. Me, you and everybody else knows that’s the fight to make. That’s the fight. The (other) fight is Masvidal and Usman.”

Masvidal and McGregor have both expressed interest in fighting each other before, which is something that White has also nixed.

White does want to see McGregor face UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov again, as Nurmagomedov defeated McGregor in their first meeting at UFC 229.

“When you look at what makes sense, we’re at a place where Conor was saying going into the Khabib fight, he had lots of personal stuff, some stuff self-inflicted,” White said. “He had injuries. He had all these things going on, and he has been obsessed with getting that rematch because he knows that he wasn’t 100 percent right. When you look at this for Khabib, Khabib is 28-0. He’s undefeated, right? You start talking about this kid’s legacy – first of all, to go 28-0 in this sport, I don’t care who you fought, it’s tough to do, right? This guy is a world champion, and after tonight and with how Khabib won the first time and how famous Khabib has become since that first fight, we’re looking at like Hagler-Hearns. We’re looking at Ali-Foreman, Ali-Frazier. This is a massive fight with global appeal. It’s the fight that you make. It’s the fight that makes sense. It’s for the 155-pound title.”

Nurmagomedov’s father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, recently stated that the UFC would have to pay Khabib $100 million for the rematch to happen.