Dana White’s Plan For The BMF Belt – What’s Next?
In today’s MMA news, Dana White opened up about his plans for the next BMF fight.
Max Holloway is the current champion after knocking out Justin Gaethje with a second left to go at UFC 300. Gaethje had also stopped his opponent, Dustin Poirier, to win the belt at UFC 291. The first BMF title fight took place at UFC 244 in 2019. Jorge Masvidal beat Nate Diaz to secure the belt. The fight was stopped at the end of the third round due to a cut over Diaz’s eye.
While the BMF fight was meant to be a one-off, White plans to make a fourth one. Several fighters have been linked with the Holloway fight. UFC Featherweight Champion Ilia Topuria only wanted that fight if the BMF belt was on the line. Meanwhile, Holloway was open to fighting Conor McGregor. Now, White expects further developments to happen.
White Reacts
“We’re working on the BMF title right now. No, it doesn’t rub me [the wrong way] at all, I love that people love that belt and want to fight for it – I love it. Yeah, we’re working on a lot of stuff right now, obviously we’ve got The Sphere coming up, we’ve got Madison Square Garden, we got a lot of big fights coming up around that time, we’ll get it figured out,” White said
While McGregor may have been mentioned, he has to get past his fight with Michael Chandler. The Notorious will face Chandler at UFC 303 on June 29. It is his first UFC fight since losing to Dustin Poirier in 2021 at UFC 264. McGregor suffered a broken leg in the defeat, raising questions over whether he will be the same fighter.
While he has not beaten Chandler, McGregor has already been linked with Makhachev. There is a history between the two sides. McGregor faced Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in 2018. Khabib won via a fourth-round submission. The fight ended in a brawl after the bad build-up. While McGregor never got the rematch, a fight with Makhachev could allow him to avenge that loss.
McGregor vs. Makhachev
Khabib was in Islam’s training camp and corner when he beat Dustin Poirier at UFC 302 to defend his UFC Lightweight Title. Islam has spoken about going to welterweight, even saying he would fight McGregor. But Smith has warned McGregor about taking such a fight. Smith argued that McGregor would not be able to deal with Islam’s grappling game, something he found out when he faced Khabib. Poirier also discovered this despite having some success with his striking.
“I was in Vegas for the Conor McGregor-Khabib Nurmagomedov fight. It was one of the greatest events I’ve ever attended in my life, it was unreal. But what we learned in that fight is that Conor McGregor has no business being in the Octagon against a grappler, which is what Makhachev is. This brother right here is something special and he’s not going to try and strike against Conor McGregor,” Smith said
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