Former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub has claimed Conor McGregor has already been offered his next fight.

McGregor was last seen being submitted by rival Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in October, as the Russian retained his lightweight title.

However, McGregor and Nurmagomedov were both involved in an unsavoury post-fight brawl that has seen them slapped with suspensions by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

A hearing on December 10 will decide the duo’s fate - however Schaub claimed on his Below the Belt’ podcast that the UFC have already decided who they want McGregor to fight next.

Schaub, now a commentator and analyst, stated the Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone is their favoured next opponent for McGregor - who just has to accept the challenge.

Schaub on McGregor's rumoured comeback opponent 

He said: “You could not get closer to the situation told me that the Donald Cerrone-Conor McGregor fight was offered, that’s the plan and they’re waiting for Conor to sign the contract,’

“It’s up to Conor if he wants that as his next fight.

“I know from a legit source close to the situation that that is the fight they want to do.

“It’s up to Conor McGregor if he decides to sign the contract or not. But that fight, from what I’m told, has been offered.

Cerrone recently recorded a win against Mike Perry, and after the win he told reporters post-fight that the UFC had already offered him his next fight.

The UFC veteran then took to Instagram to tease a fight with McGregor as he posted a picture of the two and wrote, ‘Just waiting on him!...“ I know a guy.’

Despite the rumours of McGregor returning against Cerrone, the UFC chief told TMZ Sports that the fight was not targeted.

White said: “That’s not true, absolutely not true. Obviously that’s the fight that Cowboy Cerrone wants but that’s not true.

“We haven't even thought about an opponent for either one of those guys yet - meaning Khabib or Conor.”

“Those guys go before The Nevada State Athletic Commission in December than we’ll know what’s up.

“We’re not even thinking about it, it’s not even worth talking about because we don’t know how long the suspensions going to be, what fines it’s going to be, we don’t know the penalties yet.

“So you can’t even think about fights until you know what the penalties are.”

However, Schaub believes White is not telling the truth as he claimed the UFC president would have already thought about what's next for his biggest fighters.

Schaub said: ‘When (Dana White) says they haven’t thought of an opponent for either Khabib or Conor, that’s not true either. For Khabib it’s Tony Ferguson, for Conor it’s Donald Cerrone.”