Conor McGregor announces UFC return on January 18 in Las Vegas

UFC star Conor McGregor has confirmed that he will be returning to the Octagon on January 18 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

McGregor has been out of action since October 2018 when he was defeated by Khabib Nurmagomedov via fourth round submission in the very same arena. Ever since then, fans and media members alike have been questioning if and when he would compete once more – and it appears as if we have our answer.

McGregor announced the news earlier today during a press conference in Moscow, Russia. McGregor showed up late for the start of the event, but has certainly made it up to fans by finally letting the world know that he will, in fact, be competing once again.

https://twitter.com/DenisGeykoRT/status/1187306528287670272

Conor McGregor announces at a press conference in Moscow this AM that he has agreed to return to action on Jan. 18 in. T-Mobile. He did not name the opponent. Fight isn’t signed. Two leading candidates are Cerrone and Gaethje. Cerrone is the frontrunner at this time, I’m told.

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) October 24, 2019

https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/1187323667304325120

McGregor did not mention who his opponent would be for this potential showdown, but he’s certainly still got his eyes set on Nurmagomedov, throwing several taunts in his direction throughout the course of the press conference. He seemed to lay out something of a three-step plan, with the second step after the Vegas fight being a clash with the winner of Nate Diaz vs Jorge Masvidal. Then, he plans on challenging either the Russian champion or Tony Ferguson.

ESPN’s Ariel Helwani is reporting that the fight is not yet signed, with Justin Gaethje and Donald Cerrone being leading contenders in the race to get the fight with McGregor.

Both men have been heavily linked with this bout in the past and actually fought each other back in September, with Gaethje winning via TKO in the very first round.

The expectation is that the fight, whoever it may be against, will be contested at lightweight as McGregor begins his anticipated road back to a possible title shot.

How do you think Conor McGregor will look in his return?