Dana White Talks Conor McGregor, Shoots Down Possibility of Bout With Jorge Masvidal

Recently Jorge Masvidal said he’d like a chance to break the “face” of Conor McGregor, if a bout with welterweight champ Kamaru Usman doesn’t materialize. But, based off comments Dana White has made, it sounds like that fight has little chance of happening.

Masvidal has been driving for a title shot following his jaw-dropping, KO win over Ben Askren at UFC 239. But, if that doesn’t happen, “Gamebred” has let it be known he wants to fight McGregor.

TMZ recently caught up with White, and when the UFC President was asked about the possibility of Masvidal – McGregor, he said this (quote via MMA Mania):

“Masvidal is too big for Conor. There are plenty of fights for him in his weight division without Conor. Conor doesn’t belong at 170. He’s got the balls to fight at 170, but he doesn’t belong there.”

Sure, if McGregor insisted on fighting Masvidal, then the UFC could very well  get on board with this. But, it would be kind of surprising if McGregor did so, since Masvidal is no longer competing at 155. By all indications so far, McGregor is interested in making another run at the lightweight title. Would a win over Masvidal help in that respect? Ya. Probably. But so would a victory over say, Justin Gaethje or Donald Cerrone.

White was also asked whether McGregor could get the winner of the September 7th bout between the champ Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dustin Poirier:

“No,” White said. “But it will shake things up, whoever wins that fight. He’ll either be back this year or early next year. We’ll see how this whole thing plays out in September.”

This is somewhat interesting to hear. While Khabib has repeatedly scoffed at the idea of giving Conor an immediate rematch, the theory’s been floated that if Dustin wins the title, the UFC might just give McGregor a title shot. The reason (excuse) being that McGregor defeated Poirier before.

So, if McGregor isn’t fighting the winner, guaranteed, who could be next for him?