Dana White says Conor McGregor could be fighting before the end of 2017

Stranger things (and shorter fight camps) have certainly happened.

UFC President Dana White has urged fans not to rule out a Conor McGregor comeback next month. The reigning UFC lightweight champion has not fought in the Octagon in a year but White has hinted at a spectacular return in the main event of UFC 219. The UFC typically reserves its New Year's cards for some of the bigger fights. Recent years have seen the likes of Ronda Rousey, Jon Jones and Anderson Silva all compete on the closest Saturday to New Year's Day but, curiously, the organisation has yet to announce a championship bout for the upcoming UFC 219 card, which will take place in Las Vegas on December 30. With a concerning lack of superstars available to compete on that date, perhaps the UFC will be forced to come begging at McGregor's door and get him to dust off his 4oz. gloves for one last pay-per-view hoorah in 2017. At a Q&A event at Wild Card Gym on Tuesday night, White revealed that he intends to start looking at putting together his final main event of 2017 this week before admitting that it may feature a little-known fighter who goes by the name 'The Notorious.' https://twitter.com/latimespugmire/status/928130592348151808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.punditarena.com%2Fmma%2Fckelleher%2Fbreaking-dana-white-drops-massive-update-regarding-conor-mcgregor-and-ufc-219%2F LA Times reporter Lance Pugmire broke the news and it lines up with White's previous insistence that he expects to see the Irishman compete before the year is out.

"Yeah. We’re planning on it [having Conor McGregor fight in 2017]. He said he wants to, and we want him to," Dana White told TMZ last week. "So we’ll see what happens. The kid wants some money, the kid wants some stuff. And if there’s anyone out there that’s worth it, it’s Conor McGregor. We’ve always figured it out with him and we’ll figure it out again."

Having acted as co-promoter for his most recent bout, a boxing debut which saw McGregor stopped by the undefeated Floyd Mayweather in August, McGregor demanded to be allowed to co-promote his fights with the UFC in future so that he could maximise his earning potential. But White gave short shrift to that request and remained adamant that he was not looking for a promotional partner.

"As we go into negotiations with Conor there’s always all kinds of crazy stuff out there," White said at the UFC 217 pre-fight press conference. "We always get deals done with Conor. Conor has been easy to deal with, and we’ll get it done."