Conor McGregor can kiss goodbye any thoughts of rematching against rival Khabib Nurmagomedov in Moscow.
UFC president Dana White said there's no way Moscow will be the host city for the rematch. When the subject was brought up during the UFC 246 post news conference on Saturday night, White immediately dashed the hopes of McGregor attempting to pull off a "Rocky IV" style victory in Russia.
"Nope. It ain't happening in Moscow," White said. "There's many, many reasons why it wouldn't happen in Moscow."
While White didn't expound on any of those reasons, he did list what he deems to be more logical host options for the mega fight, including the United Kingdom, New York City, AT&T Stadium in Dallas and the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. That latter location witnessed Nurmagomedov score a fourth-round submission of McGregor back in October 2018.
White mentioned that Vegas would be the most realistic option for the rivals to run it back, but that "Khabib is not a big Vegas fan" because of his experience there with the original fight (which ended in an ugly melee that sparked when Nurmagomedov hopped over the Octagon and put hands on a McGregor stablemate).
Holly Holm followed White on the podium on Saturday, followed by McGregor, fresh off his 40-second destruction of Donald Cerrone. When informed that White wasn't in agreement about Moscow hosting Khabib-McGregor 2, "Notorious" did his best to defend his choice:
"There's a lot of money in Russia," McGregor asserted. "There's a lot of revenue in Russia.
"I love Russia," he continued, making sure to add that Russians love his Proper No. Twelve Irish Whiskey. "I love the Russian people.
"What a place. It would be like something out of a Rocky movie, so I'd be very eager to do that."