Conor McGregor only sees gold in his future if he comes back to fight.
The former two-division champion has made it clear he plans to compete at the upcoming UFC White House card planned for June and while there is still plenty of work to be done before the card is set in stone, McGregor is sure he’ll be on it. And at some point, he’d like to face welterweight champion Islam Makhachev for a chance to win a belt in a third division.
“I’m motivated,” McGregor told Bloody Elbow when asked how much a Makhachev fight interested him. “I’m self-motivated and I for sure want a crack at that belt. I for sure want a crack at that 170-pound belt to go for the triple crown.”
Makhachev awaits his next challenger, though booking him against McGregor would be a stunning promotional move by the UFC even given McGregor’s mainstream cachet. The welterweight king is currently No. 1 in MMA Fighting’s Pound-for-Pound Rankings, while the 37-year-old McGregor has been out of competition since 2021 and is nearing six years since his most recent win.
There is history between Makhachev and McGregor, with Makhachev’s mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov and McGregor having a longstanding feud that culminated in Nurmagomedov defeating McGregor at UFC 229—and Nurmagomedov instigating a post-fight brawl that resulted in the fighters and several of their teammates receiving fines and suspensions.
McGregor watched Makhachev recently make a successful jump from lightweight to welterweight by defeating champion Jack Della Maddalena at UFC 322, and he was impressed by what he saw.
“It would be a good fight, a good scrap,” McGregor said of a potential Makhachev matchup. “Southpaw, southpaw. It was a good performance out of him and fair play to him, he had the courage to do it, to go up. So yeah, I’m excited for it, let’s see what happens. Let’s get back in the mix.
McGregor’s comeback has long been tied to lightweight veteran Michael Chandler. The two served as opposing coaches on The Ultimate Fighter 31 and were subsequently booked to meet in a welterweight bout at UFC 303 in June 2024, but McGregor withdrew due to a toe injury.
He’s open to the Chandler fight being re-booked, but is trusting the UFC to bring him the right opponent.
“I won’t say no to no one,” McGregor said. “The UFC will decide it and I don’t care, I just want to come back. I’m just eager to come back and show my work.”
One thing McGregor is sure of is that he will fight at the White House next year. A date is still to be locked in for the historic event and UFC CEO Dana White has said on several occasions they haven’t reached the matchmaking stage for the card yet, so McGregor is waiting for the call just like everyone else on the roster.
“The White House is on,” McGregor said. “We’re just waiting for a full confirmation. I assume around February, they’ll come reaching out and we’ll go into the contract negotiations and matchmaking orders, that’s what they say. So I’m just staying ready in the gym, two times a day.“
