![\"Conor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ba80d3e8-f732-466a-a442-b8be038ada5c.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDespite being previously linked to fighting at the event on June 14, former two-weight world champion McGregor hasn\u2019t been included, with current superstars Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje squaring off in the main event over lightweight gold.<\/p>\n
McGregor has not fought at a UFC event since a technical knockout defeat to Dustin Poirier in July 2021, in which the Dublin-born mixed martial arts fighter sustained a broken tibia and fibula.<\/p>\n
That was the third and final installment of their trilogy, which Poirier won 2-1.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Conor McGregor<\/p>\n
News in 90 seconds – March 9th <\/p>\n
McGregor was due to make his return to the octagon against Michael Chandler in June 2024, but the Crumlin native withdrew due to a broken toe.<\/p>\n
At the upcoming June showcase, meanwhile, the UFC will help US president Donald Trump, a close friend of UFC president Dana White, celebrate 250 years of the United States by staging a series of fights in Washington DC. The event in fact coincides with Mr Trump\u2019s 80th birthday.<\/p>\n
The Octagon is expected to be built on the South Lawn, with limited attendees permitted in the cageside area, but with other zones \u2013 containing big screens \u2013 potentially open to thousands of fans.<\/p>\n
Whoever is present will watch Topuria and Gaethje clash in the main event, while the rest of the fight card is as follows:<\/p>\n
Ilia Topuria (C) vs Justin Gaethje (lightweight title)Alex Pereira vs Ciryl Gane (interim heavyweight title)Sean O\u2019Malley vs Aiemann Zahabi (bantamweight)Mauricio Ruffy vs Michael Chandler (lightweight)Bo Nickal vs Kyle Daukaus (middleweight)Diego Lopes vs Steve Garcia (featherweight)<\/p>\n
Topuria has not fought since knocking out Charles Oliveira to become a two-division champion in the UFC at the age of just 28, with the Georgian-Spaniard spending time out of the cage as he dealt with personal matters.<\/p>\n
In that period away, Gaethje outclassed Paddy Pimblett at UFC 324 to become interim lightweight champion and will now hope to avoid becoming the latest legend to be slept by Topuria in their title unification bout, with the likes of Max Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski also falling to \u201cEl Matador\u2019s\u201d power before.<\/p>\n
Alex Pereira, fresh off relinquishing his light-heavyweight crown, will fight for interim heavyweight gold as he takes on Ciryl Gane in the co-main event, looking to conquer a record-breaking third division in the promotion.<\/p>\n
Reigning heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall remains sidelined with a serious eye injury after being poked in both eyes by Gane in their title bout at UFC 321.<\/p>\n
White confirmed that Aspinall remained in his plans and would be set to face the winner of this bout to unify the titles.<\/p>\n
The news was announced during the UFC 326 broadcast on Saturday night, before Holloway put the \u201cBaddest Motherf*****\u201d title on the line against Oliveira in the main event in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
On Friday, White actually confirmed that a planned White House fight had fallen through that very day, showing how fragile matchmaking can be in a sport like mixed martial artists \u2013 especially given how frequently injuries occur.<\/p>\n
Senior figures at the UFC and within its ownership group have suggested that the White House event will cost around $60m to put on, but allegedly at no cost to the taxpayer.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump previously said there would be eight to nine fights at the White House, and that every one would be a title bout.<\/p>\n
Back in September, White hinted at the possibility of snipers lining the roof of the White House as a security measure for this summer\u2019s UFC event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite being previously linked to fighting at the event on June 14, former two-weight world champion McGregor hasn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1714,61,60,112],"class_list":["post-336834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-conor-mcgregor","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}