Conor McGregor believes his UFC 257 main event fight against Dustin Poirier should be for the vacant lightweight title.
Ahead of the card, Dana White revealed Khabib Nurmagomedov would only return if someone impressed him. However, for the Irishman, he says he doesn’t care about that but knows the war is not over.
“I don’t really care,” McGregor said about Nurmagomedov during the UFC 257 pre-fight press conference (via MMAFighting). “He did not say that, Dana said that. Let’s just get through the fight. All these men are up here, there’s plenty of challenges. It’s a tough business. Things have gone on in his personal life, I don’t wish him any harm. Like I said, it was in 2018, a lot of time has passed.
“The world knows this fight is not over. The war is not over. The sport needs it to happen. The people need it to happen. I’m not going to chase it if he doesn’t want it. That’s it. I’ll keep my calm and move on. That’s what I’m doing. I’m back here at the 155-pound division. I’ll show the world what’s what over time and that’s it. It begins on Saturday night against Dustin Poirier.”
Regardless, Conor McGregor doesn’t believe Nurmagomedov will return to the Octagon anytime soon. If the Irishman has his way, he believes Nurmagomedov should be stripped of his belt.
“I would make the case if that man is continuing to dodge this and dodge the commitment of competing again, the title should be stripped and we should be engaging in a title fight,” McGregor said. “But I’m sure it will happen after this bout. I’m interested to hear what the excuse is or what will be said after the fight, but I predict a title strip.”
For now, Conor McGregor is focused on his fight against Dustin Poirier and after that, he will turn his attention to the belt.
