In light of recent events and subsequent fallout, Conor McGregor vs. Jorge Masvidal is a popular UFC dream fight that fans are begging to see before the year ends. Unfortunately, though, UFC president Dana White doesn’t seem to agree that a McGregor vs. Masvidal showdown is the big-money, headlining fight to make anytime soon. In a recent interview with TMZ Sports, White shot down the potential bout, noting that he believes McGregor is simply too small to take on the welterweight bout against “Gamebred.”
“Masvidal is too big for Conor,” White said. “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.”
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The fantasy-booking of McGregor vs. Masvidal first began to surface immediately following Masvidal’s Knockout of the Year performance at UFC 239 over Ben Askren in which he sent the previously-unbeaten grappling expert to sleep in just five seconds with a flying knee right out of the gate. It was etched in the record books as the fastest knockout in UFC history. Then, Masvidal fueled the fire even more during a recent appearance on the “Dan LeBatard Show” when he openly called for a fight with the former featherweight and lightweight champion if he fails to be awarded the next shot at 170-pound champ Kamaru Usman.
Despite the fact that McGregor famously split a pair of fights with Nate Diaz at welterweight, it seems clear that White would prefer McGregor stay at 155 pounds whenever he does return to the Octagon. Even though White also put the kibosh on McGregor possibly challenging the winner of the upcoming undisputed lightweight title matchup in Abu Dhabi in September between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dustin Poirier in the same interview, the plans seem to call for McGregor to slightly work his way back to lightweight title contention.
Not to mention, if you were White, would you choose to risk your biggest moneymaker you recently signed to an eight-fight deal being violently sent to a different stratosphere with one of those Masvidal knee strikes? Probably not.
More UFC news, rumors
- Recent UFC light heavyweight title challenger Thiago Santos is undergoing double knee surgery Wednesday on the heels of his majority decision loss to Jon Jones at UFC 239. Days after the event in Las Vegas, it was revealed that Santos had torn the ACL, PCL, MCL and meniscus in his left knee, and later it was announced he also had a partial ligament tear in his right knee. This man took quite possibly the greatest UFC fighter of all time to his absolute limit, even winning the title in some people’s eyes with limited use (this is probably an understatement) of both legs. I don’t think this is being talked about enough, quite frankly.
- On Tuesday, Bellator MMA announced the complete field for the upcoming Featherweight World Grand Prix. The star-studded tournament is set to begin in September at Bellator 226 on Sept. 7, with the by far most notable first-round matchup taking place on Sept. 28 at Bellator 228 as reigning 145-pound champion Patricio “Pitbull” Freire puts his title on the line against Juan Archuleta.
