According to Dana White, former UFC champion Conor McGregor will return to UFC at the "beginning of next year".

The last time we saw McGregor in the Octagon was last October when Khabib Nurmagomedov forced him to tap out, before the duo shocked the world with their post-fight antics.

Moreover, since that shocking defeat, McGregor has announced retirement in March and has been involved in scandals here, there and everywhere. So, why come back?

Well, one reason why we could be seeing The Notorious make a return is his love for the sport.

Moreover, McGregor's coach John Kavanah told ESPN: "I think what has come back is his love for the sport. He loves doing it."

This alone should alert other fighters because as we have seen before, when McGregor is in love with fighting and not just doing it for money, he is dangerous and a threat to all competitors.

Speaking about the Irishman, White said, as per The Sun: “I think McGregor is gonna come back at the beginning of next year.

"So, realistically, all these guys are looking at September to see what happens with Khabib and [Dustin] Poirier.

“After that fight plays out, I think there’s gonna be a lot of movement going on.”

Following on, and with it looking likely that the return of McGregor is imminent, who could the Irishman face upon his return?

Well, to answer that question, one of the names that has been thrown into the equation is Justin Gaethje, who has won two fights in a row, knocking out James Vick and Edson Barboza.

Gaethje has also called McGregor out before. So, with that being said, could he be the perfect fight for the returning McGregor?

Furthermore, another candidate that has been put forward for a fight with McGregor is Tony Ferguson.

Ferguson is ranked number 2, which is one rank above McGregor. This means that if this fight were to happen, the winner would go on to face the victor of the Nurmagomedov-Poirier fight for the title.

This would be a fair and simple way of arranging the fairly congested and confusing title picture, but the question has to be asked, is McGregor ready for a big fight?

To conclude, the return of McGregor will rock the UFC community as he immediately targets a title.