The Ultimate Fighting Championship will resume its 2020 schedule this Saturday with the UFC 249 event. Now that the promotion is back in action following a coronavirus pandemic hiatus, mixed martial arts fans are wondering what major fights UFC president Dana White has in store for the rest of the year. Conor McGregor hasn’t fought since his quick win over Donald Cerrone in January, and some fans are hoping he’ll get matched up with another outspoken UFC star in Jorge Masvidal.
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The veteran welterweight saw his stock skyrocket in 2019 when he set the record for fastest knockout in UFC history (a five-second flying knee to Ben Askren at UFC 239), then defeated Nate Diaz for the customized BMF Championship at UFC 244.
White addressed the speculation for that fight when he appeared on The Jim Rome Show this week.
“The obvious fight for Masvidal is (UFC Welterweight Champion Kamara) Usman. He should be fighting for the title against Usman,” White said. “We’re locking (Tyron) Woodley in, Woodley is going to fight in a couple of weeks. Either Masvidal wants the fight or (Usman gets) the rematch with (Colby) Covington, I don’t know right now. There’s a lot of options for that guy.
“People are writing stories like I said yesterday we’re going to do Conor vs. Masvidal, I never said that. The guys that I was doing interviews with were pushing me on that and I’m like, ‘Yeah that’s interesting, anything is possible.’ I didn’t say that was the fight that was going to happen. People are writing that today, but not true.”
White then turned his attention to McGregor, saying that the Irish native is ready for his next fight but he’s hesitant to book McGregor for a fight with no fans in attendance.
“Fight Island is going to be important in any of these fights that are happening with people from outside the country,” White said. “And it just kills me to do a fight without fans. This guy is doing almost $20 million gates.”
UFC 249’s main card will consist of UFC Lightweight Champion Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje, UFC Bantamweight Champion Henry Cejudo vs. Dominick Cruz, Francis Ngannou vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Jeremy Stephens vs. Calvin Katter and Greg Hardy vs. Yorgan de Castro.
