Conor McGregor doesn’t seem too bothered by Ilia Topuria’s latest callout after “El Matador” captured the featherweight title at UFC 298.
The 145 belt was once carried by McGregor, who won the title in 2015. He was stripped in November 2016 shortly after winning the UFC lightweight title. Nowadays he’s teasing runs at welterweight or even middleweight, but that didn’t deter Topuria from challenging “The Notorious” after KOing Alexander Volkanovski in Anaheim on Saturday night.
“Dana [White], Hunter [Campbell], it’s showtime! It’s time to take the UFC to Spain,” he said during his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan. “And Conor McGregor, if you still have some balls, I will be waiting for you in Spain.”
UFC CEO Dana White has already agreed that the promotion will take Topuria to Spain for a title defense. As for McGregor, his response was non-committal.
On an ESPN SportsCenter Instagram post sharing Topuria’s quote, McGregor joked “I have huge balls, I’ve four kids.”
Unfortunately, it’s unclear whether Conor McGregor will ever fight in the UFC again, much less against featherweight champ Ilia Topuria. “The Notorious” has claimed he’s returning to fight Michael Chandler in June, but Dana White has said that’s not happening. Following UFC 298, he speculated that Conor had too much money to care about fighting any more.
“Any time we get Conor, we’ll be thrilled when he comes and fights,” he said. “Money complicates a lot of things. He just filmed a movie. He’s gotta do the press for the movie and he’s got obligations with that. He does wanna fight this year but we’ll see what happens.”
White denied the delays had anything to do with McGregor having just two fights left on his UFC contract. But something is clearly getting lost in conversation between Conor, who keeps angling to fight ASAP, and Dana, who keeps pumping the breaks.
Even if the two finally get on the same page, though, we wouldn’t hold our breaths waiting for McGregor vs. Topuria.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
