Conor McGregor butts heads with Dana White over Moscow fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov

Where to next for Conor McGregor is the question on everyone’s lips. But the Irishman and the UFC are at an ugly impasse.

The blood had barely dried after Conor McGregor wiped the floor with Donald Cerrone before attention turned to what was next for the Irish star.

There’s a ton of options of fights he could do — Floyd Mayweather posted a story on Instagram with the pair fuelling speculation of another clash in the ring or he could chase Jorge Masvidal’s “BMF” belt.

But UFC president Dana White appears set on handing McGregor another shot at the title.

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With the 28-0 Khabib Nurmagomedov going up against 25-3 Tony Ferguson in a blockbuster headliner for UFC 249 in April, it appears like McGregor will get the winner.

And that White has his money on Khabib to stay undefeated.

“When Conor was going into the Khabib fight, he had lots of personal stuff, some stuff self-inflicted, he had injuries, he had all this stuff going on and he’s been obsessed with getting that rematch because he knows he wasn’t 100 per cent right,” White said in the press conference. “When you look at this for Khabib, he’s 28-0, he’s undefeated, we start looking at this guy’s legacy.

“After tonight and how he won that first fight, we’ve looking at Hagler-Hearns, Ali-Foreman, Ali-Frazier, this is a massive fight with global appeal, it’s the fight you make, the fight that makes sense. If Conor and Masvidal fight, neither of them have a title, although Conor does want his BMF title, he doesn’t have a world championship so Khabib is the fight to make.”

But once you work out who will fight, attention should turn to where.

McGregor has long been campaigning for Moscow, in the Dagestani Nurmagomedov’s backyard of Russia, since he visited Russia last October.

McGregor wants to take on Khabib in Russia.

White poured cold water on the idea, leaving the pair at odds.

When asked in the press conference if the UFC would take the fight to Russia, White responded “Nope. It ain’t happening in Moscow.”

Pressed further as to why it wouldn’t be an option, White said “why do you think?” with the journalist suggesting pay-per view.

“There are many, many reasons why it won’t happen in Moscow,” he said. “You’re either going to do it in the UK, New York City, Dallas Texas Stadium, the stadium here, T-Mobile. Realistically, Vegas is always the place that makes the most sense when you have a massive fight. Unfortunately, Khabib is not a big Vegas fan after what happened to him last time but … I don’t know.”

White’s response was then fired at McGregor during his press conference.

“Why was he against it?” the Irishman said.

“Pay-per view,” the journalist responded with McGregor rolling his eyes.

“How much money is enough money for f***s sake,” McGregor said. “There’s a lot of money in Russia. I love Russia, I love the Russian people, I went to Moscow recently and they’re such a great nation. They’re so passionate about the sport of mixed martial arts, they’re so passionate about myself and they support me greatly. What a place, it’d be like something out of a Rocky movie. I’d be very eager to do that.

“Dana’s the home town Vegas boy, I know the Vegas people will be campaigning it. We’ll see what happens but I’d love it. Even me going out there to Moscow that time, the place shut down, the world took notice, your mum said was saying I wouldn’t be allowed out there, I wasn’t supposed to be out there. They were running the streets screaming my name. I’m more Russian than that man so I’d love to go to Moscow and compete there.”

Conor McGregor isn’t going to wait forever.

Another suggestion was a stadium show with McGregor wanting to take any show like that back home.

“If there’s a stadium show happening in Europe, it’s happening in Ireland,” he said. “It’s not happening in the UK. I love the UK greatly, but it’s not happening in the UK. If there’s a stadium show happening in Europe, bring that motherf***** to Ireland. I’d love to compete in Ireland as well, I’d love to compete in my home town.”

While there has been speculation that McGregor would step in for Ferguson for another shot at Khabib in April, he said he’s not about to wait forever.

“The who doesn’t matter for me now, I’m looking at dates now and I know March was there,” he said. “I’m going to look at a calendar and see where we’re at.”

CONOR SMELLS ‘WEASEL’ IN PHONE HACK

Conor McGregor wagged his finger when asked about Kamaru Usman's hacked Twitter account.

One of the stories going into the fight happened when Kamaru Usman’s Twitter account was hacked ahead of the fight.

It saw a string of offensive tweets targeting McGregor go out

White said it was “crazy” and the first thing he did was contact McGregor to tell him that the account was hacked.

His manager Ali Abdelaziz, who also manages Nurmagomedov and has been a vocal critic of McGregor, tweeted that there had been an issue.

Guys Kamaru Usman’s @USMAN84kg Twitter has been hacked UFC is working on getting it back.

— Ali Abdelaziz (@AliAbdelaziz00) January 19, 2020

His account has since been restored, but White was asked about it in the post-fight press conference, revealing he told McGregor what had happened to try and avoid an incident.

“Usman and Ali were sitting right in front of where Conor comes out and does the thing,” White said. “He didn’t believe it, he doesn’t believe he got hacked.

“They put his bank account out there and pin code, just crazy man. Horrible.”

But when the question was put to McGregor, he believed he knew the truth.

“I’d be skeptical of that, because one came true early and it had all the hallmarks of that little f***ing weasel Ali,” McGregor said. “They give him control of the accounts, he had Frankie’s (Edgar) account, he had Henry’s (Cejudo) account - this has been going on for a while.

“I’ve been in discussions with some of these athletes to come on board and I knew exactly what happened. The way the first one was written, I knew exactly where it came from. And then all of a sudden, there were a few heavier ones and then it became a hack job so whatever.

“I don’t know what’s going on tonight. I don’t think it was Usman, but I just don’t care. It just has all the hallmarks of your man that’s done it in the past multiple times. I saw one originally and Dana sent a message to me.

“This is happening for years, I’ve been dealing with this for a long time, but whatever.”

It’s clear that this feud is not over with McGregor potentially after Usman’s welterweight belt after admitting he felt good at welterweight after completely dominating Cerrone.