UFC President Dana White says McGregor took the fight against Cerrone so he wouldn’t have to cut much weight for a potential rematch against UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“Conor is going to fight at 170 for this fight,” White said to 106.7FM (via Nolan King of MMA Junkie). “Mainly because he doesn’t want to have to cut the weight to 155. Him and Cerrone have both fought at 170. He’s hoping that he beats Cerrone and can turn right around and fight Khabib as quick as possible. So he didn’t want to make the cut twice.”
Nurmagomedov and McGregor met for the first time at UFC 229, with Nurmagomedov scoring a fourth round submission win on that night.
Another person that McGregor has set his sights on is surging welterweight Jorge Masvidal.
“Conor has told me he definitely wants a fight with Masvidal,” White said (via MMA Junkie). “So we’ll see what happens.”
UFC 246 takes place on Saturday, January 18 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Conor McGregor and Donald Cerrone headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
