UFC chief Dana White has dismissed the idea of Max Holloway fighting Conor McGregor after the Hawaiian beat Yair Rodriguez.
Holloway, 29, battled through a gruesome cut sustained after a nasty-looking elbow in round five to beat Mexican underdog Rodriguez by unanimous decision.
It was Holloway's second consecutive win of the year - the first of which came against Calvin Kattar back in January - which has put him on the cusp of a trilogy fight with featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski.
But after dominating the 145-pound division with 17 wins over the past decade or so the American is keen to face a different challenge.
“We’ll see what happens," Holloway said in his post-fight interview.
“There’s Hunter [Campbell], there’s Sean [Shelby] right there. That’s their damn jobs.
"I have a win over the 155-pound champion, we have Alex [Volkanovski] and stuff, I’m on the shortlist for Conor McGregor – tell him to hit my line. We ready whenever.”
White, however, revealed McGregor is still recovering after undergoing surgery for a broken leg suffered during his defeat by Dustin Poirier in their blockbuster rematch at UFC 264 in July last summer and shrugged off his suggestion for a fight.
When asked what he thought of Holloway calling out McGregor for a fight earlier last week, White responded: "I don’t know what’s next for Max, but it does make sense to see him and [Alexander] Volkanovski again.
"Conor’s not even – Conor’s still hurt. To even talk about Conor is silly."
Volkanovski defeated Holloway for a second time at UFC 251 in July last year - his first defence of the 145lbs belt.
But White was one of many who felt at the time that the decision should have gone the other way on the night.
He added: “It’s one of those things – it was razor thin, [Holloway] just comes in and puts on a performance like this.
“This is just a guy that Volkanovski’s going to have to just get him out of the way and do it again.”
READ MORE: Five things we learned from UFC Fight Night: Max Holloway vs Yair Rodriguez this weekend