UFC 209 was either going to be a breakout moment for Tony Ferguson or for Khabib Nurmagomedov, who were meeting for the interim lightweight title. Yet the reason there was an “interim” attached to the fight at all was because nobody is sure what happens to the lightweight champion Conor McGregor next.
The Irishman is in the process of trying to put together a mega crossover boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, a pursuit that has graduated from “unlikely to happen” to an “exploratory phase” in early 2017. Mayweather recently went on record saying he’d like to fight McGregor in June of this year.