Conor McGregor has largely been out of the spotlight for anything MMA related since he made taking on Floyd Mayweather his personal goal for this year. He will not rest until he takes on the unbeaten boxer inside of a ring and gives fighting fans the fight everyone has been waiting for.

This decision has left Dana White in a precarious position going forward with the promotion. He could have called it quits when he sold the company for $4.2 billion last year, but he has stuck around and tried to help the UFC capture the same excitement it did last year.

2016 yielded five huge pay-per-view events: three McGregor fights, Ronda Rousey’s return and UFC 200. Still, ahead of UFC 211, White is still looking for his first real smash of 2017 as he went on SportsCenter to hype up his product.

Some of his comments inevitably turned toward McGregor and the boxing match that fans have been waiting for as time has continued to tick on by. It seems that he has some good and bad news on that front.

He said: “We’re not even that far along in the [McGregor-Mayweather] process. So I guess I don’t have to worry about the date any more. Conor wants to fight. Conor wants to fight Floyd, Conor wants to fight twice this year, so we’ll just have to see how this thing plays out.”

Such a statement has to be met with joy by the rest of the combat sport community as McGregor’s return would be an instant shot in the arm for the entire promotion. His presence would kick start the division he left behind where Tony Ferguson eagerly awaits his shot at Notorious.

Khabib Nurmagomedov must also be excited about this news as he was the next in line for a shot at the champion before his withdrawal from UFC 209 against El Cucuy. That no-show caused Ferguson to leap him in the pecking order for most fans.

All of these challengers are on the table when McGregor comes back from this quest in the boxing ring. People had started to wonder if he would ever fight in the Octagon again, but this announcement puts those doubts out of everyone’s minds.

Even more telling is the fact that Notorious took the time to retweet the story when it went out. That isn’t an explicit confirmation, but the optics all lean toward a UFC fighting appearance this year and that can’t be bad for the sport.