There have been strong rumors over the past 24 hours that Conor McGregor could be stripped of his lightweight title fight as early as Satuday night as the UFC look to pursue a fight for the belt between interim champion Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Initial reports out of Russia that have since been widly circulated suggest that the fight to establish a new undisputed lightweight champion at UFC 223 on April 7th in Brookyln, New York City could be announced during the UFC 220 event on Saturday night,
However, MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani has since indicated that this talk may be premature.
“I asked Khabib’s manager @AliAbdelaziz00 to confirm and he vehemently said there is no deal in place at this time for that fight,” Helwani wrote on Twitter. “Furthermore, sources close to McGregor say he has not been stripped of the lightweight belt at this time.”
This wouldn’t be the first time that such rumors has been dismissed by parties close to the situation, only to later prove to have been true after all, and so even Helwani himself admits it’s still a developing situation.
“No secret the fight is out there and Khabib wants to fight before May, but by all accounts the hurdles have not been jumped over just yet. That could obviously change.”
