As chaotic as the MMA world is right now, the UFC’s lightweight division is still ridiculous. Eddie Alvarez jsut got off an extremely violent win over Justin Gaethje and is waiting for a huge fight. Khabib Nurmagomedov is back and on warpath. Tony Ferguson is the interim lightweight belt holder and still recovering from elbow surgery. Meanwhile, the undisputed champion Conor McGregor is still counting his money and waiting on the right time to show back up. With his future up in the air, Joe Rogan thinks the UFC will strip him make big fights in his absence.

“Here’s my prediction: My prediction is Conor [McGregor] doesn’t fight for a while. They strip Conor. Tony [Ferguson] and Khabib [Nurmagomedov] fight for the [undisputed UFC lightweight] world title. […] What I believe is gonna happen is, Conor’s gonna vacate. I think they’re going to strip him.”

That Dagestani was dog shit the other night you’s are all nuts. Game full of sloppy bums asking to be slept. Pay me my worth and Kings back.

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) January 1, 2018

“Conor’s got $100 million in the bank. I think he’s having fun and talking sh-t, and he’s going to keep training, and he’s going to make a big fight in the future, but I think Khabib versus Tony is the big fight and f-ck, they might even do that one in Russia. They’re talking about doing a big fight in Russia. If that happens? Woo! F-ck yeah that’s a good fight.” — Joe Rogan on his latest MMA Show.

This comes on the heels of the UFC’s first ever Russian card being slated for September, as well as Khabib Nurmagomedov not willing to fight for an interim belt. Would stripping Conor McGregor encourage him to come back to the UFC sooner? Or will the threat force him to defend it against Ferguson or Nurmagomedov? We’ll be wondering if 2018 will be the year McGregor returns to MMA and hopefully we won’t have to wait long for the answer.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 1/13/2018.