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Conor McGregor learns exact date for potential UFC comeback fight

Conor McGregor learns exact date for potential UFC comeback fight

Daily Mirror2 days ago
The Irishman has not fought since 2021, but is planning on a sensational return to the cage - with his potential comeback fight set to take place next year
Conor McGregor 's potential UFC comeback could take place on July 4, 2026, after boss Dana White confirmed that the promotion's planned trip to the White House is all set for the aforementioned date.

Last month, US president Donald Trump made a series of major announcements during a rally in Iowa ahead of Independence Day. The 79-year-old expressed his plan to host a UFC event on the grounds of the White House in front of up to 25,000 fans. "And I even think we're going to have a UFC fight... Does anybody watch UFC and the great Dana White?" Trump asked the crowd of MAGA faithful. "We're going to have a UFC fight. We're going to have a UFC fight," Trump continued. "Think of this - on the grounds of the White House."

Trump added: "We have a lot of land there. We're going to build a little - we're not, Dana's going to do it, Dana's great, one of a kind - we're going to have a UFC fight, championship fight, full fight, like 20-25,000 people." The event will be a part of the 4 July celebrations in the US to mark the 250th anniversary of the country's founding.

White revealed he has plans to meet with Trump and his daughter Ivanka at the end of the month to finalise the plans. It will mark the first time a UFC fight card would be hosted at the White House "It is definitely going to happen," White, a high-profile supporter of the US president, told CBS television.
"I talked to him last night -- 'him' being the president -- and I'm flying out there at the end of this month, and I'm going to sit down and walk him through all the plans and the renderings, and we're going to start deciding what he wants and doesn't want."
The UFC supremo added: "When he called me and asked me to do it, he said: 'I want Ivanka in the middle of this.' So Ivanka reached out to me, and her and I started talking about the possibilities, where it would be and, you know, I put together all the renderings."
Following Trump's announcement, many fighters were quick to offer their services to compete on the card, including McGregor. In a post uploaded to social media, the 37-year-old posted: "Happy 4th of July, USA. Excited with President Trump announcing a UFC fight event at the White House! I would be honoured! Count me in!!"
White also seems to be onboard with the idea after McGregor leaked a conversation with the 55-year-old. The Irishman sent the UFC boss a few voice notes - seemingly relating to the aforementioned event at the White House - to which White replied: "I love it!" The 37-year-old later doubled down on his comments during a recent BKFC event, saying: "It's looking like I'm headed to the Oval Office again. That's where I'm headed next."
When did Conor McGregor last fight?
The former dual-weight UFC champion has not fought since suffering a defeat to long-time rival Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 back in 2021. He was due to make a stunning return last year against former Bellator champion Michael Chandler, but was forced to pull out of the contest after picking up an injury in training.
In a recent interview with Pardon My Take, White was asked about McGregor's potential return. 'He's been posting videos of himself training. He's back in the [testing] pool now," said the UFC boss. "He wants the White House fight." He added: "If he starts training and getting in shape... that is the fight he wants. He keeps telling me he wants that fight, so we will see how it plays out over the next several months."
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Trump posts powerful two-word message ahead of historic Putin peace summit – while pro-Ukraine Alaskans line the streets
Trump posts powerful two-word message ahead of historic Putin peace summit – while pro-Ukraine Alaskans line the streets

Scottish Sun

time20 minutes ago

  • Scottish Sun

Trump posts powerful two-word message ahead of historic Putin peace summit – while pro-Ukraine Alaskans line the streets

Scroll down to read our live coverage of today's meeting GOING ALL IN GOING ALL IN Trump posts powerful two-word message ahead of historic Putin peace summit – while pro-Ukraine Alaskans line the streets DONALD Trump has posted a powerful two-word message ahead of today's crucial war talks with Vladimir Putin. Both powerful leaders are headed to Alaska with the streets of Anchorage already lined with pro-Ukrainian civilians coming out in force against Russia's war. 5 Pro-Ukrainian civilians have lined the streets of Alaska protesting against Russia's war Credit: Reuters 5 Vladimir Putin's huge team started their journey across to the US today as they sped through the shabby streets of Magadan Credit: East2West 5 Ukrainian drones hit a residential building in Kursk in a last message to the Kremlin ahead of the talks Credit: East2West 5 Putin is on his way to Alaska to hold crucial war talks with Donald Trump Credit: Reuters 5 Trump took to Truth Social shortly before he was due to takeoff from Washington to simply post: "HIGH STAKES!!!" He has already described the summit as being like a chess game this week as he prepares to go face-to-face with Putin for the first time in six years. Russia's huge delegation started their journey across to the US earlier today as they sped through the shabby streets of Magadan. Putin is expected to board a jet to Alaska later and complete the nine-hour trip to the 49th state. Trump will officially greet Putin before peace talks start at around 8:30pm UK time. The US President has been adamant the bloodshed in Ukraine must end but a merciless Putin is yet to relent. He even continued to order barbaric attacks on Ukraine as he launched aerial bombs in Dnipropetrovsk region overnight with his troops edging forwards on the frontline. Ukrainian forces have been forced to evacuate a town in Donetsk as the intense fighting rages on at the hands of Russian sabotage and reconnaissance groups. Putin is expected to ask to keep hold of all the land he has managed to illegally seize since starting the conflict in February 2022. The brazen tactics were paired with the Kremlin's "Doomsday Radio" which blurted out strange coded messages as the despot started his travels. Trump vows Putin 'won't mess around with me' & Vlad 'wants a deal' ahead of historic Alaska summit to end Ukraine war The station is known to send out strange messages during tense times for Russia with experts saying it is likely linked to the Kremlin's nuclear defence forces. Today the signals NZHTI 88751 MAREL 5057 6881 and NZHTI 03649 STOKOTON 2751 2830 were broadcasted with no explanation. The same mysterious codes were sounded only six weeks before the start of Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv launched their own warning shots at Russia as they sent a final message to the Kremlin ahead of the talks. They are believed to have downed Putin's £32 million Su-30SM fighter close to Ukrainian-controlled Snake Island in the Black Sea. Russia was also hit by heavy Ukrainian bombardment on the Olya port in Russia's Astrakhan region. The port has been used to import military goods for Putin's war machine from Iran via the Caspian Sea across the past three years. Ukraine also exploded Syzran Oil Refinery with a major drone swarm which triggered deafening explosions and sparked two major blazes. Russia's defence ministry said it had intercepted 55 Ukrainian drones across multiple regions overnight. Today's historic peace summit will be held at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. It will be the first meeting between the pair since 2019. A notable absentee from the peace talks is Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump is expected to call up Kyiv's brave wartime leader alongside his European allies following the summit to discuss the progress made. A second meeting is then due to be scheduled which could see Putin and Zelensky meet face-to-face for the first time since the war started. Read our live blog for the latest on the Trump and Putin peace talks...

Healey hopes Trump-Putin summit could be ‘first step' on road to peace
Healey hopes Trump-Putin summit could be ‘first step' on road to peace

Powys County Times

time43 minutes ago

  • Powys County Times

Healey hopes Trump-Putin summit could be ‘first step' on road to peace

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Can Putin extract an economic victory from Trump?
Can Putin extract an economic victory from Trump?

Spectator

timean hour ago

  • Spectator

Can Putin extract an economic victory from Trump?

The Alaska summit taking place today isn't just about war – economics looms equally large. Vladimir Putin, with his forces pressing forward in Ukraine, faces neither military urgency nor economic desperation to halt the fighting. For him, this has never been a territorial grab but an existential struggle against Western hegemony. His challenge is to decouple the war from bilateral cooperation with America: the former proceeds too favourably to abandon, while the latter promises diplomatic triumph and relief from mounting economic pressures. Putin's delegation tells the story. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's special envoy for international investment, signal that sanctions and economic cooperation will be discussed. Putin has long insisted that what he deems illegitimate Western sanctions harm their architects more than Moscow, and he remains open to renewed trade – provided his geopolitical ambitions receive due recognition. For Trump, cooperation follows peace, which Russia supposedly needs to salvage its economy. Here, Putin and Trump diverge. Trump declares Russia's economy troubled; Putin claims stability and 'balanced growth'. Both misjudge the situation. The Russian economy, to borrow from Chernobyl, is 'not great, not terrible'. Contrary to Western hopes, it isn't collapsing. Contrary to the Kremlin's statements, it is not a paragon of stability either. After three years of fiscal-fuelled growth, Russia's economy is slowing. The initial war-stimulated boom brought with it inflation, budget deficits, labour shortages, and technological underinvestment. In the second quarter of 2025, Russia barely escaped recession. Year-on-year growth limps on above 1 per cent, with analysts predicting near-zero figures towards the end of 2025. After 4 per cent growth in 2024, 2025 forecasts for the whole year hover around 1 per cent. Days before the summit, Putin's economic ministers painted a grim picture, according to people familiar with the details of the meeting. Amid deteriorating forecasts and falling oil revenues, they expect to muddle through – unless conditions worsen – but only through spending restraint and squeezing more from citizens and businesses. This marks a shift from having a 'war economy on steroids' to fiscal containment without de-escalation: permanent militarisation under constraint. As civilian production slows, the military's share rises. Russia can no longer afford guns and butter, so butter gets cut. Short-term, this seems manageable. Russian incomes have grown for over two years, and consumption has increased despite double-digit inflation. A cooling-off hardly spells disaster. But a managed soft landing risks becoming a prolonged decline. Several factors explain the collapse in growth. The Bank of Russia's prohibitively high base rate, maintained to combat inflation, which was only recently reduced to single digits, tops the list. The Central Bank faces constant pressure from industrialists and bankers to cut rates but resisted until lending constraints and falling consumption finally forced prices down. Inflation stems from rising government spending and labour market constraints. The military industry and the fighting army drain workers from the open market. Up to 700,000 young professionals have fled since 2022, while authorities have limited migrant employment to appease nationalist sentiment. This drove up salaries and fuelled consumption and lending in 2023 and 2024. Now, the consumer party is ending – or at least has been put on hold. As the economy slows in 2025, salaries are stagnating, dampening consumption. After two years of retail exuberance, Russians are growing frugal. While overall retail sales remain stable, consumers are spending increasing shares on food – the one essential they cannot cut. Slowing consumption and high borrowing costs reduce manufacturing growth. Companies are struggling to purchase new equipment and upgrade machinery due to sanctions and borrowing costs. Growth is now concentrating in the military sectors. To boost productivity and cut costs, the Kremlin would welcome technological sanctions and machinery bans being lifted. Russia has become a two-tier economy, with civilian and military sectors diverging. Just as during the Soviet era, the Kremlin sees military production as the primary economic driver. Combined with restocking needs, this ensures continued high defence spending at the expense of human capital. Unrestrained fiscal spending, lower oil prices, and economic slowdown have widened the budget deficit. By the end of June, it reached 3.7 trillion roubles (£34 billion) or 1.7 per cent of GDP – roughly the amount forecast for the whole year. A month later, it hit 2.2 per cent. Without changes, it could reach 3 per cent or more. While unremarkable for Western countries with open capital markets, Russia can't finance its fiscal deficit with borrowing abroad. Before the war, foreigners held a quarter of Russian sovereign debt. Now, only domestic borrowing remains. Additional state borrowing increases state debt servicing costs and business borrowing costs as firms compete with the government for funds. Easing the ban on international investors buying Russian debt would help the Kremlin. In global trade, Russia has adapted to financial sanctions by using more roubles, yuan, and local currencies for export settlements. But easing banking sanctions to allow dollar settlements would reduce costs, risks, and volatility. Trump cannot immediately lift all the sanctions against Russia, even if he is willing to. He would need congressional persuasion for some; convincing Europeans would prove harder. But even promising not to tighten US restrictions – let alone easing them – would give the Kremlin a political victory and an economic lifeline. This need for economic oxygen isn't yet as acute as it was for the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s. Despite wishful thinking, Russia's economy isn't collapsing. Economic headwinds alone won't force Putin to negotiate. But the risks are accumulating, and the future has arrived faster than the Kremlin hoped.

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