Dana White on Conor McGregor and lightweight title picture: The division has to go on

Dana White dodged answering if Conor McGregor will be stripped of his undisputed lightweight title during the Boston press conference On Friday leading up to UFC 220, which takes place today. Instead, White insisted that the winner of Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov “will be the champion.”

However, White did state that McGregor’s ideal plan of returning to competition in the Octagon in the third or fourth quarter of 2018 is much too long of a time without an undisputed UFC lightweight title fight.

“I said leading into Mayweather fight, I made it pretty clear, I’ve been in this business for a very long time. When you make an obscene amount of money like that, who knows if they’ll ever come back?” White stated (via Alexander K. Lee for MMA Fighting). “Right now, with the position we’re in, Conor’s saying, ‘Maybe I’ll come back in August, maybe I’ll come back in September. Well, that’s almost two years. It’s not fair to the rest of the guys in the division. The division has to go on. These guys have been fighting their whole career. Everybody wants to get to that pinnacle and it’s the fair thing to do.

“Listen, I take so much s**t for how much I like Conor McGregor and everything else, but the division has to go on.”

White basically agreed with Aaron Bronsteter in an interview on Friday that if McGregor does commit to defending the title against the winner of Ferguson vs. Nurmagomedov leading up to that fight, Ferguson vs. Nurmagomedov will fight for the undisputed title.

“They’re going to fight for the title,” White continued. “This is the real title. I said that Conor can’t hold up the title for two years.”

What do you make of the UFC lightweight title picture? Let’s get your thoughts in the comment section on what should happen and what you think will happen.

on 1/20/2018.