Dana White wants a rematch against Khabib Nurmagomedov to be Conor McGregor's next fight.
The Irishman defeated Cowboy Cerrone at welterweight in 40 seconds at UFC 246 on Saturday, his first fight since losing to Nurmagomedov in October 2018.
"Khabib vs Conor is the biggest fight in the sport's history. I think it might rival Conor vs Floyd," the UFC president said at the post-event press conference.
When you look at what makes sense, we're at a place right now where Conor going into the Khabib fight had lots of personal stuff, some stuff self-inflicted, he had injuries. He has been obsessed with getting that rematch because he knows he wasn't 100 per cent right.
When you look at this for Khabib, he's 28-0 - he's undefeated. After tonight and with how Khabib won the first time and how famous Khabib has become since that first fight, we're looking at Hagler vs Hearns, Ali vs Foreman, Ali vs Frasier.
This is a massive fight with global appeal. It's the fight that you make and the fight that makes sense. It's for the 155lb title. If Conor and (Jorge) Masvidal fight, neither one of them have a title.
Khabib is the fight to make. It's huge for Khabib's legacy too: if he beats Conor McGregor, if he beats Tony Ferguson and then Conor McGregor again, when he retires and he's 30-something-and-zero, and he's beaten all the best.
Nurmagomedov, the UFC's reigning lightweight champion, is scheduled to fight Tony Ferguson on April 18th. White said that if Ferguson was the cause an upset, he would fight McGregor. "Conor wants that belt back, he'll fight whoever wins," said White.
Asked where a Nurmagomedov vs McGregor rematch would take place, White was quick to dismiss the possibility of Moscow being the venue.
"You're either going to do it in the UK, New York, Dallas Texas Stadium, the stadium here (Las Vegas), T-Mobile," said White.
"Realistically, Vegas is always the place that makes the most sense when you have a massive fight. Unfortunately, Khabib is not a big Vegas fan after what happened to him the last time."
He added that should the rematch be made, he would like the two fighters to tone down their hatred of each other in the build-up.
"The hard part is when you have two guys who truly hate each other. These guys hate each other. You're always going to have emotions the week of when they're both cutting weight.
"It goes deeper than that too - the camps hate each other. There's a lot of bad blood there. As an organisation, we have to do our job to make sure none of that stuff happens."
Photo by Mark J. Rebilas / USA TODAY Sports via Sportsfile
