Conor McGregor doesn’t whisper when he wants attention. He drops a line onto social media and lets the internet do the rest. That’s what happened again this week, as the UFC’s biggest name hinted he’s finally staring at a contract and doesn’t care who’s on the other side of it.

The White House card is being lined up for June 14. The UFC has said the slate is nearly full, and McGregor has spent the last few months posting gym clips instead of himself partying. After nearly five years out of the cage, every small signal feels louder. And this one landed differently because it came with a demand, not a tease.

“It’s a no name up next for me possibly, folks,” The Irishman wrote on X. “And as you know, idgaf. I ACCEPT. Send the contract, lads. CONOR MCGREGORS DEAL”

Though the post appears to have been deleted moments later, the message did two things at once. He’s now lowering expectations on the opponent, and he’s putting pressure on the UFC and Dana White to put paperwork in front of him. That’s classic ‘Notorious’. He frames it as acceptance, but it’s also a public nudge. This comes days after he posted, then deleted, that he’d been offered an opponent and date and was “waiting on my contract.”

There’s also the Nate Diaz wrinkle hanging over all of this. The Stockton legend teased a UFC return recently, which immediately lit up nostalgia talk about a trilogy almost a decade after they split fights in 2016. It’s the easiest story to sell. But Conor McGregor calling the next opponent a “no-name” cuts against that idea. Diaz is many things. Anonymous isn’t one of them.

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That leaves two reads: either the UFC offered McGregor a stay-busy name for the White House card, or McGregor is managing expectations while he angles for the platform more than the matchup.

At 37, with a brutal leg injury in his rearview and five years of ring rust, the version of McGregor that returns won’t be the same one that blitzed Jose Aldo in 13 seconds. Stats tell that story too. His last win in MMA came in 2020 against Donald Cerrone. Since then, it’s been two Poirier losses, a long medical layoff, and a broken toe that nixed his clash against Michael Chandler. Time doesn’t pause for star power, and according to Chael Sonnen, putting ‘The Notorious’ on the White House card doesn’t make sense for the promotion either!

Conor McGregor’s chances for the White House card gets push back from Chael Sonnen

Chael Sonnen laid it out bluntly on his YouTube channel: from the promotion’s side, it doesn’t make sense to burn one of your most expensive names on a card where the venue is already the headline. In his words, the White House itself is the hook. That’s what pulls in casuals who might never click on a normal Fight Night.

“Let me tell you why Jon Jones and Conor McGregor don’t make any sense to be on the White House card. I can do it pretty quickly because there’s just three reasons.” Sonnen said, “Now, I’m coming at you from the perspective of the second floor of the UFC. Right? The business side of it.”

Sonnen’s point isn’t anti-McGregor. It’s anti-waste. With a fixed revenue model, he argued, why plug in a top-dollar returnee when the setting does the marketing for you? He also leaned into scale. Dana White expects this card to draw more viewers than any previous UFC event. That’s leverage. Sonnen framed it as a chance to build tomorrow’s stars, not cash in on legends who might be fading.

He also made a simple point that hits home: you don’t use a once-in-a-lifetime venue to showcase someone who might not be around after the night ends. As he put it, Dana White isn’t bringing people to the White House “for them to retire.”

The White House card is being sold as a moment in UFC history, not a nostalgia tour, and that puts Conor McGregor in an awkward lane. He still draws attention with a sentence, yet the business case for rushing him onto this specific stage isn’t clean yet. Do you think the UFC puts ‘The Notorious’ on the White House card? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!