Dana White reclarifies Holloway-Nurmagomedov title stakes, says Conor McGregor will fight in 2018

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – After Saturday night, in theory, we’ll stop wondering just what is going on with the lightweight title picture.

UFC President Dana White today reclarified what will happen when featherweight champion Max Holloway (19-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) meets Khabib Nurmagomedov (25-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) in the UFC 223 main event. Nurmagomedov was supposed to fight Tony Ferguson (23-3 MMA, 13-1 UFC) until a Ferguson injury knocked him out just a week before the fight, and Holloway stepped in.

Ferguson currently is the interim lightweight champion, but his fight with Nurmagomedov was going to determine the new lightweight champ – a belt currently held by Conor McGregor (21-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC). That means McGregor will have his title stripped. But with Ferguson unable to fight, that means his interim belt no longer will exist, White said.

“No interim champ – when this fight is over, one of these guys will be the champion. Peroid,” White told MMAjunkie at a news conference today in New York.

UFC 223 will take place Saturday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. The main card will air on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

Holloway can become just the second fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two different weight classes concurrently. The first was McGregor, who also happens to be the last fighter to beat Holloway, who is perfect since then, including a win over Jose Aldo to become the featherweight champion, and a win over him to retain the title in December.

Holloway was supposed to put that belt on the line at UFC 22 in February until his own injury knocked him out of a fight with Frankie Edgar. Edgar went on to lose to Brian Ortega, who is next in line at 145 pounds – but will have to wait to find out what happens with Holloway on Saturday.

White said the choice for Holloway to step in when Ferguson dropped out became a pretty easy one.

“When you look at our schedule that’s going on right now, everybody is fighting,” White said. “He had just come out of a camp, his ankle got injured, he had some time to rest and recover. If you look at him, he hasn’t lost a fight in five years. (He) hasn’t been taken down in four years. He has the most finishes in the 145-pound division. He’s a (expletive) stud who said yes and comes in and fights Khabib on one week’s notice. That makes him the man.”

If Holloway wins in what would be a fairly big betting upset, it sets up a fight with McGregor that makes a lot of sense given the pair’s history. If Nurmagomedov wins to become the lightweight champion, McGregor would become a natural matchup there, as well, since he’d be wanting to get his title back.

Regardless, White said the popular Irishman will be back in 2018.

“Conor’s coming back this year. 100 percent, he will fight this year. We’ll see how this thing plays out and we’ll go from there.”

For more on UFC 223, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.