Conor McGregor Wants To Fight In June On UFC's 'Fight Island,' Next Opponent Unknown

UFC 249 is set to take place in Jacksonville, Florida Saturday night, making mixed martial arts the first sport to return during the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. The promotion is even planning to hold events on a private island, where fighters that don’t live in the U.S. would be able to compete.

The sport’s biggest star wants to get back inside the octagon, and it sounds like he’s prepared to compete on UFC’s “Fight Island” in the near future.

During an interview with Robbie Fox of Barstool Sports Tuesday, UFC president Dana White said he received a text message from Conor McGregor about securing a fight.

“He’s asking me, ‘What date could I fight on Fight Island,’” White said. “‘And will there be fans?’”

There probably won’t be fans at a UFC show anytime soon, but that might not stop McGregor from competing.

“We’re not talking about a specific opponent, but he wants to fight,” White told Fox. “He wants to fight. It sounds like he wants to fight in June and he’s asking if there would be fans there. There would not be fans, and the fight would either be mid-June or end of June. But Conor wants to fight.”

McGregor needed just 40 seconds in his last fight to knock out Donald Cerrone on Jan. 18 in the UFC 246 main event. It was the superstar’s first fight since he was defeated by lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in October 2018.

In a recent appearance on “The Jim Rome Show,” White said construction of Fight Island is currently underway.

“The infrastructure is being built right now. I'm hoping that it will all be done mid-June,” White said. “Hopefully, we'll be able to have a fight that weekend that it opens, or maybe closer toward the end of June.

“What we're building that for is that I can't predict what tomorrow might bring with this coronavirus, so the hardest thing is going to be getting people in from the United States. This is where we're going to do all our international fights.”

Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje will meet Saturday night in the main event of UFC 249. The pay-per-view starts at 10 p.m. EDT at Jacksonville’s VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena without fans in attendance.