Dana White lines up fight for ‘Cowboy’ as McGregor comeback stalls

It was all going so well...

Dana White had some bad news for UFC fans, this weekend, as he put the kibosh on a potential summer ding-dong between Conor McGregor and Donald Cerrone. McGregor was expected to fight either Dustin Poirier or Tony Ferguson next, after he lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229, but a January win for Donald Cerrone over Alex Hernandez elicited this response: https://twitter.com/TheNotoriousMMA/status/1086821125110329344 And so we were off... 'The Notorious' versus 'Cowboy'. The division's other top contenders, and featherweight champion Max Holloway, all had their say on the match-up but fans were excited. Cerrone vowed it would be a stand-up bout and that it would captivate the fans. McGregor and Cerrone then added fuel to the fire by their interactions on social media, and the Dubliner posting a series of pictures and videos showing him training away. Cerrone sought to push ahead with getting the fight all set up when he was in Las Vegas this week. The Colorado native met up with Poirier and renowned training Henry Hooft for some sparring and then posted this teaser, with July 6th - the weekend pencilled in for UFC 239 - as the date for a bout. https://www.instagram.com/p/BuaTAwRAVfK/ Fight fans in Vegas, this week, for UFC 235 were eager to get an update on events from Dana White. The UFC president had bad news for the masses, however.

"Listen, these two have been talking about this and I said if they want to fight I would do it. But we’re nowhere close to a fight. We’re actually looking at other opponents for ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone now."

That opponent now looks likely to be 'Ragin'' Al Iaquinta, who Nurmagomedov defeated in 2018 to claimed the 'undisputed' lightweight belt. McGregor may not now return to action until the autumn and, according to White, he has his sights set on a rematch with Nurmagomedov.