Conor McGregor Says He’s Back On The UFC 200 Card
Last Tuesday, current UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor tweeted out that he had decided to retire young. Then, just a few days later, UFC president Dana White announced that the featherweight champ had been pulled from UFC 200 due to him refusing to show up to a press conference.
The UFC president made it clear that they were looking for another fight to headline their July card. He also said that they were looking for a new opponent for Nate Diaz, but Diaz made it clear that he didn’t want to fight anyone except for Conor McGregor.
The Conor McGregor situation has completely overshadowed everything in the UFC, and it looks like it’s going to continue to do so, as McGregor gave a shout out to Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta via Twitter and thanked them for putting him back on the UFC 200 card.
Happy to announce that I am BACK on UFC 200!
Shout out to @danawhite and @lorenzofertitta on getting this one done for the fans. #Respect— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 25, 2016
It’s been over eight hours since McGregor tweeted out that he’s back on the UFC 200 card, and nobody from the UFC has responded to it. It’s quite possible that McGregor is trying to force the UFC to put him back on their July show.
After this past weekend’s UFC 197, it seemed quite clear that the UFC was hoping that Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier would be able to headline UFC 200. Jones himself said that he’d be willing to fight on that card, but Cormier, who suffered a leg injury not too long ago, has to get clearance from a doctor to fight on the card, and he still hasn’t been cleared as of this writing.
Other than Jones vs. Cormier, there’s really no other fight that’s worthy of being the UFC 200 main event unless the UFC can convince either Ronda Rousey or Georges St. Pierre to fight on the card.
Rousey, who is in the middle of filming a movie, isn’t expected to return to the Octagon until November. It’s extremely unlikely that the UFC would be able to convince her to come back four months early.
Georges St. Pierre, who has been retired since November of 2013, has expressed an interest in returning to the UFC. In fact, he was cageside for the first McGregor vs. Diaz fight, and if McGregor would’ve won, the UFC was planning on making a GSP vs. McGregor fight.
There’s a chance that, because they weren’t able to get St. Pierre or Rousey to return, the UFC has decided to come to an agreement with McGregor, but that seems unlikely. If that were the case, the organization would’ve already announced that “The Notorious One” is back on the UFC 200 card.
As previously mentioned, there’s a chance that Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier may headline UFC 200. But that fight, as of right now, is in the hands of Cormier’s doctor. We should know if DC will be able to fight in July at some point today, as he is going to see his doctor today.
If the UFC isn’t able to reach an agreement with McGregor, and if any of the aforementioned fighters aren’t able to fight on the UFC 200 card, then Frankie Edgar vs. Jose Aldo for the interim featherweight championship will be the main event of that show. And while it’ll probably be a good fight, it’s not exactly a fight that UFC fans around the world have been dying to see.
There should be an update on Conor McGregor’s UFC 200 status at some point today. But for now, all we know is that he’s claiming to be back in the show’s main event.
[Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images]
