Is Conor McGregor Making His UFC Return on January 18th? Not Likely

Conor McGregor has been away from the sports ever since his loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229. Although he has teased his comeback now and then, there has been no official confirmation from UFC regarding his next opponent. However, his recent announcement that he would be making his octagon return on January 18th gave his fans a hope that finally, they would be able to see the former lightweight champion inside the UFC octagon.

Unfortunately, it’s very unlikely that McGregor is going to make his UFC return on the mentioned date. McGregor announced that he would be making his UFC return on January next year at Las Vegas. It was believed to be the main event on UFC 246. However, on the official site of UFC, it’s declared that UFC 246 will be taking place in Texas.

The light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones is set to defend his title against Dominick Reyes on the Houston card and it has to be the main event. On the other hand, it’s highly unlikely that Conor McGregor is going to be on the co-main event of UFC 246. That apart, putting McGregor on fight night or even on an ESPN card would not be wise business-wise since he is still the biggest draw in UFC. Hence it seems fans might have to wait a little longer for the return of McGregor.

That apart it has to be kept in mind that, for a McGregor fight UFC needs a good amount of time to promote the fight and for the media events. With such a short period of time remaining until January 18th, the return fight of McGregor was already in jeopardy.

Dana White has earlier confirmed that UFC is working on the return fight for McGregor, however, fans are still unaware of the next opponent of McGregor. At this point, Donald Cerrone seems to be leading the race to fight McGregor, however, there is a possibility of McGregor fighting Justin Gaethje who is a strong contender at the lightweight division. On the other hand, Khabib Nurmagomedov is likely to defend his title against Tony Ferguson in March or April.