Dana White: Cyborg vs. Nunes is next; Ferguson vs. Nurmagomedov likely before McGregor

UFC President Dana White laid out some immediate plans for a couple UFC title pictures.

In an interview with Yahoo! Sports‘ Kevin Iole, the UFC executive shared some big title plans for 2018.

They include confirmation that UFC’s women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes (15-4 MMA, 8-1 UFC) will be the next to challenge for Cris Cyborg’s (19-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) featherweight title. He also said a title fight between interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson (23-3 MMA, 13-1 UFC) and recent UFC 219 winner Khabib Nurmagomedov (25-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) will likely happen before undisputed 155-pound champ Conor McGregor (21-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC) returns to the cage to face the winner.

White didn’t give exact dates for the planned title fights, but he suggested Ferguson and Nurmagomedov, who are respectively No. 2 and No. 3 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA lightweight rankings, could fight for the interim belt before meeting No. 1-ranked McGregor later in the year – with a caveat.

“As long as Conor is willing to fight by March, we could do Khabib vs. Tony … and then the winner fights Conor for the title,” White told Yahoo! Sports. “Or, if Conor wants to sit out until next fall, then we’d have to make Khabib vs. Tony for the title – not the interim title.”

It’s not clear why McGregor would need to return by March; after all, it’s unlikely Ferguson vs. Nurmagomedov gets booked before then anyway.

Although McGregor has recently griped about pay, White said MMA’s kingpin, who’s fresh off a boxing pay-per-view blockbuster with Floyd Mayweather, should be satisfied with the financial offer he makes him to get back in the octagon.

As for Cyborg vs. Nunes, it’d represent the UFC’s first female champion-vs.champion fight. Although Cyborg recently announced she accepted a fight with Invicta FC titleholder Anderson at UFC 221, the Australian dismissed it as “fake news” soon after.

“Amanda Nunes wants to fight Cyborg,” White said. “That is the fight to make, and that is the fight I will make. That’s the fight.

“Amanda Nunes is a big, strong, powerful puncher. I think she matches up very well with Cyborg too, and I think that’s a fun fight. And that’s the fight to make.”

Check out Iole’s full interview with White below.

And for more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.