Dana White Believes Conor McGregor vs. Jorge Masvidal is a “Bad Idea”, But Leaves Door Open to BMF Title Fight

As Conor McGregor prepares to fight Donald Cerrone next month at UFC 246, there’s been plenty of talk about him facing Jorge Masvidal in 2020. While Dana White still doesn’t think it would be wise for McGregor to battle “Gamebred”, increasingly it looks like the UFC President would proceed with a BMF title fight between the two.

White’s latest comments about McGregor vs. Masvidal

Earlier this year, when Masvidal named McGregor as one of the people he was interested in fighting, White shot down the match-up by arguing “Gamebred” was too big for the former lightweight champ. But, in more recent weeks, and after McGregor has made it clear he’s interested in fighting Masvidal, White has changed his tune somewhat.

Well, during a recent, year-end review with ESPN, White had this to say about a possible showdown between Masvidal and McGregor (quotes via MMA Fighting):

“Conor has this idea, too, that if things don’t go his way and he [doesn’t] get the fight [with Khabib], he’ll have had a 170 fight in his pocket again and [is] considering a [Jorge] Masvidal fight,” White said. “I think everybody knows what I think about it. I think it’s a bad idea.

“Conor gets pissed off when I say it’s a bad idea, and he’s like, ‘You think I can’t beat Masvidal?’ I’m not saying you can’t beat Masvidal. Anybody can beat anybody on any given day, but why? Why go after that fight when you could possibly just wait?”

“Conor wants that belt from Masvidal,” White said. “I did it as a one off and like I said, it was fun. It was awesome. We’ll see what happens.”

So, what could happen?

There’s a lot to look at really, in terms of whether Masvidal – McGregor might do down. First off, McGregor needs to defeat Cerrone on January 18th, and while some people think he’s likely to do that, it’s important to remember how dangerous and experienced “Cowboy” is.

Now, if  McGregor does beat Cerrone, then the ball will likely be in his park, in terms of whether a fight with Masvidal materializes. The latter has made it very, very clear that he’s board for the match-up. So much so, Masvidal has said he’d take that fight over a bout with welterweight champ Kamaru Usman.

The key factor here could be, whether or not McGregor decides to remain in the mix as possible replacement opponent for the April 18th bout between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson. Or, whether he thinks he could prepare for a fight with Masvidal at 170, but be ready to drop down to 155, if the opportunity arose.

Could McGregor hold off on booking a fight with Masvidal until after Khabib vs. Ferguson is over? If Khabib wins, and continues to insist he won’t fight McGregor next, then maybe the controversial star will push for a fight with Masvidal say, in early summer?