With Conor McGregor’s first child with his long-time girlfriend Dee Devlin due in May of next year, UFC president Dana White has confirmed that the fighter won’t return to the Octagon for at least six months.
“He won’t fight before May,” White told The L.A. Times. “His girl gets super stressed out when he fights. He doesn’t want her having any of that stress while she’s pregnant. He’s good. He should take time off. He’s been fighting nonstop. Nothing wrong with him taking time off. It’s good for him and her and it’s good for the baby.”
That’s a lengthy absence by McGregor’s standards, given that he’s fought three times in the UFC in 2016, and it’ll be interesting to see how the leading contenders in the featherweight and lightweight divisions react to this latest development.
The talk prior to McGregor’s fight was that the superstar would have to give up one of his titles if he defeated Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 last weekend, but there’s been little mention of it since.
With interim featherweight champion Jose Aldo threatening to quit recently after being snubbed for a rematch with McGregor and current lightweight No.1 contender Khabib Nurmagomedov claiming he’ll do the same if he doesn’t get the next 155lb title shot, it might not be long before White has some major problems on his hands, but he doesn’t sound concerned.
“I’ve been doing this for years, and I can tell you, 2017 will be dynamite,” White stated.
