UFC PRESIDENT DANA White believes Conor McGregor could be the ideal opponent to fight featherweight champion Jose Aldo next.
Having cruised through his first four UFC bouts, the latest of which was a victory over Dustin Poirier last weekend, Dubliner McGregor has shot up the division’s rankings into fifth.
Chad Mendes, Cub Swanson, Frankie Edgar and Ricardo Lamas all sit above ‘The Notorious’, who has repeatedly called for a title shot, but White suggests that McGregor is the right man as he has yet to face Aldo.
“Here’s the thing: If you go down the list, every one of those guys has fought Jose Aldo already,” White told UFC.com. “Conor hasn’t. So who do you line up next for the champ other than Conor? Everybody else has fought him.”
McGregor caused some uncertainty yesterday morning when he tweeted that he was in line to move up a division and fight Diego Sanchez at UFC 180 in place of the injured Norman Parke this November.
However, it soon emerged that he would not be featuring in Mexico — despite pleading with White and UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta over dinner.
“So Lorenzo (Fertitta) and I went to dinner with him last night, and he said he wants to fight Diego Sanchez in Mexico at 155,” adds White. ”I said, ‘You’re nuts. No way, we’ll get you a fight. You’ll be fighting soon enough.’ The kid just wants to fight.
“He said him and Diego have been talking back and forth for a while and he wanted to fight him. We basically told him no and he went out and put that on Twitter anyway.”
