"He should fight the winner of Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Justin Gaethje" - Dana White on Conor McGregor's next fight

UFC president Dana White is of the view that former lightweight champion Conor McGregor should sit back and wait for the upcoming lightweight title-unification bout between reigning champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and interim champion Justin Gaethje in September this year and then challenge the winner for the title.

Back in 2019, a few months before McGregor's fight against Donald Cerrone was announced, the Irishman claimed that he wanted to remain active in 2020, with an aim to fight at least thrice this year, starting with his clash against Cerrone in the headliner of UFC 246.

Well, the fight in January did go down and how. Returning to action after a year-long absence since succumbing to defeat against arch-rival Nurmagomedov, McGregor blazed Cowboy within 40 seconds of the first round to pick up a mighty impressive TKO victory against the UFC veteran.

Since then, though many fighters have called out the Irishman in the hopes of a big-money fight, nothing has really come off yet. From Jorge Masvidal to Kamaru Usman and most recently Anderson Silva, everyone seems to have one name on their lips and that's McGregor. Although McGregor accepted Silva's challenge on Twitter, White said that the matchup doesn't interest him at the moment so we can definitely write that one out for now. Also, we're already in June and it's highly unlikely that the Irishman will be able to keep his promise of fighting thrice this year.

Speaking on what he thinks McGregor's next fight should be, Dana White revealed that the Irishman should wait it out face the winner of Khabib vs Gaethje. In a recent appearance on Eddie Hearn & Tony Bellow’s Talk The Talk podcast, White said that he believes challenging for the lightweight title up next will be the smartest move for the "Notorious One". However, White also mentioned that it isn't etched in stone yet and there could still be a change in plans.

“I think the best thing for him, I’m not saying this is what’s going to happen, but in my opinion, he lets this Gaethje-Khabib fight play out and he fights the winner. I think that’s the smartest move for him. But, you know him, maybe he wants to fight before that and if he does, we can figure something out. I think that is the move for him right now.”

If Conor McGregor does decide to fight again before challenging the winner of Gaethje vs. Nurmagomedov for the title, he will definitely not be short of options. A trilogy fight against Nate Diaz will always remain on the cards until either fighter retires; there's also the possibility of going against Tony Ferguson to decide the next contender for the title.

Do you guys think Conor McGregor should fight again before he gets a shot at the lightweight gold? Let us know in the comments section below.