Conor McGregor’s long-time coach John Kavanagh may have let the cat out of the bag on social media as to when we can expect to see the Irish superstar back in the Octagon.
On Sunday, Kavanagh was asked by a fan on Facebook when McGregor would fight again, and he was surprisingly forthcoming with his answer.
“[UFC] 201 or 202, announcement soon I’m sure,” Kavanagh replied.
That ties in with UFC president Dana White’s comments to the media recently, which suggested that he wanted the fighter to return soon after July’s UFC 200 event.
“He’ll fight on 201, 202, 203…whatever,” White told TMZ last week. “I don’t know when. We’ll get it figured out.”
White has also been pushing for McGregor to defend is featherweight title next, but earlier this week McGregor suggested that he was looking to do that later, stating on Twitter that, “I look forward to my end of year unification bout.”
That could mean that he’s still hoping to fight Diaz first, shortly after UFC 200, then also defend his title before 2016 draws to a close – presumably with an eye to doing so at the historic UFC 205 show in NYC in November.
Depending on how the Jose Aldo Vs Frankie Edgar 145lb interim title fight goes at UFC 200 in July, it’s possible that the winner may not be ready to fight McGregor for the ‘real’ title as earlier as UFC 201 of UFC 202, so that could lend weight to McGregor’s argument if he wishes to still face Diaz again first.
There’s clearly still a lot of moving parts here, so we’ll have to wait and see what the UFC intends to do, but there’s little doubt that it would be in everybody’s best interests to get McGregor back into the Octagon as soon as possible.
