UFC president Dana White offered up his thoughts on 2022 and a number of fighters recently.
In an interview with ESPN, White discussed Conor McGregor, Amanda Nunes and more.
McGregor, a former two-division champion, lost twice to Dustin Poirier in 2021. He suffered a serious injury in the second meeting and has been rehabbing since.
“The thing I’ve been saying about him and I’ll always say about him is the guy has plenty of money, but he still is super passionate about fighting,” White said. “He’s fired up to come back and he’s out there doing everything he needs to do to get himself ready to perform again.”
White refused to discuss a potential opponent with the timetable for McGregor’s return unknown.
Nunes, who dropped the bantamweight belt and is still the featherweight champion, remains on target to fight again.
“I talked to her that night and she said she can’t explain it, that her body locked up on her,” White said. “She couldn’t do anything. She doesn’t understand what happened.
“She wants to find out.”
White also revealed that current heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou is competing on his final fight on his contract. Ngannou will meet Cyril Gane to unify the belts in early 2022.
“These things happen. Sometimes you don’t always come to terms with people,” White said. “When you’re a fighter, you have to be careful who represents you. I don’t think he’s had the best representation. Look, if you want to be with us, we’d love to have you.
“If you don’t want to be with us, no problem. It’s all good. I think his contract, and this is off the top of my head, if he wins he still has time with us after this fight. He’d probably have one more fight.”
