Conor McGregor will not be fighting at UFC 200 after UFC president Dana White announced on Wednesday that Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones will headline the July showdown in Las Vegas.
Cormier will fight Jones in a light heavyweight title unification bout – but McGregor has not been added to the bill.
McGregor's welterweight rematch with Nate Diaz was originally scheduled to be the main act at the July 9th event, but the Irishman was pulled from the card last week after he refused to attend a press conference as part of his promotional duties.
McGregor threatened to retire from the sport in protest, which led to much speculation about whether he would follow through on his promise and actually quit, but then he relented and said he was still willing to fight at UFC 200 – providing he could reduce the amount of promotional work he was expected to do.
On Monday he said he was back on the card when he tweeted “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”.
But White was puzzled by that claim, and told TMZ Sports on Monday that McGregor “is not fighting on 200”. On Wednesday White confirmed that to Good Morning America.
“Listen, he’ll fight on 201, 202, 203, whatever, I don’t know when, but we’ll get it figured out,” White said on Monday.
Jones, regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in UFC, previously beat Cormier in a unanimous decision at UFC 185 before losing his title after being involved in a hit-and-run incident. Cormier won the vacant belt against Anthony Johnson and defended it against Alexander Gustafsson.
On July 9th, Jose Aldo will fight for the first time since his 13-second knockout defeat to McGregor at UFC 194 last December. He takes on Frankie Edgar.
White has now signalled that McGregor’s next fight needs to be a 145lb title defense against either Aldo or Edgar. White told ESPN.com that if McGregor refuses and is intent on fighting Diaz, he will have to forfeit the featherweight championship.
