Conor McGregor: Dana White reveals when he knew Notorious would return as UFC 229 looms
CONOR MCGREGOR - UFC president Dana White has revealed he knew Conor McGregor would return to the promotion at the start of the year.
McGregor will make his long-awaited return to the cage in the main event of UFC 229 in a little over six weeks time.
The bout will be the Irishman’s first mixed martial arts contest since his UFC 205 victory over Eddie Alvarez, a triumph which saw him become the promotion’s first simultaneous two-weight world champion.
A staggering 21 months have passed since that historic night at Madison Square Garden, and for a while it looked like we wouldn’t see ‘The Notorious’ back inside the cage this year.
White, however, was certain the promotion’s poster boy would grace the Octagon again, a confidence which stemmed from a conversation he had with the Dublin native earlier in 2018.
“I knew since probably, I don’t know, the beginning of this year,” White said during an appearance on The BBC MMA Show.
“I knew he that was interested in coming back, it was just a matter of when.”
McGregor will be welcomed back to the cage by his successor at the summit of the lightweight division, Khabib Nurmagomedov.
A fight between the pair has been brewing for nearly two years and tensions will be high going into the penultimate Las Vegas pay-per-view card of the year.
I knew he that was interested in coming back, it was just a matter of when.
That fact is partially down to McGregor’s actions at the UFC 223 media day in Brooklyn, where he threw a dolly through the window of a bus carrying Nurmagomedov and his fellow fighters.
The animosity between the pair, coupled with the fact McGregor hasn’t fought for so long, has the potential to make UFC 229 the biggest show in the promotion’s history.
And White is predicting the card will smash the organisation’s pay-per-view buy records.
“Obviously, I think this fight will be massive,” he added. “This will be the biggest fight we’ve ever done on pay-per-view, for sure.
“We were projecting that this thing does two million buys. “It will be massive, it will be fun.
“The Irish will be there, which always makes it fun.
“There’s going to be a lot of Russian’s there and a lot of UFC fans.”
McGregor's showdown with Nurmagomedov will be his first since his multi-million-pound boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr, which he lost via a tenth-round TKO.
Nurmagomedov's last venture into the Octagon took place at UFC 223, where he claimed the lightweight title with a unanimous decision victory over Al Iaquinta.