Conor McGregor will not fight for the UFC lightweight title next as champion Charles Oliveira defends his belt against Justin Gaethje at UFC 274.
UFC president Dana White confirmed the fight will take place on May 7 at a location and venue yet to be confirmed.
Oliveira won the vacant title last May by stopping Michael Chandler and defended his belt for the first time against Dustin Poirier at UFC 269.
White previously confirmed that Gaethje would likely be next in line for 'Do Bronx', but didn't rule out McGregor getting a shot at the belt upon his return to the cage.
McGregor has faced over six months on the sidelines after breaking his tibia against Poirier at UFC 264 and is backed to fight again in July.
Gaethje threatened to "burn it all down" if McGregor jumped the line to fight Oliveira, but 'The Highlight' will now get his second shot at becoming an undisputed champion.
McGregor requested a title shot upon his return despite being ranked No.9 at 155-pounds and without a win at the weight class in over five years.
Former interim champion Gaethje thinks UFC 274 could take place in Oliveira's home country Brazil, an opportunity he would relish.
"They're still working their way down to Brazil. I saw they announced Glover [Teixeira] vs Jiri [Prochazka] so that tells me they're working on this fight card," he told BT Sport.
"I wanna go down to Brazil, I wanna fight in the chaos. If you go back and listen to my earlier interviews, I said I wanted to go to enemy territory like Brazil and fight in the chaos.
"Them screaming I'm gonna die, 20,000 people, I'm 100 per cent confident that when I'm done they'll love me."
Gaethje missed out on the lightweight title in 2020 when he was submitted by Khabib Nurmagomedov in the Russian's final UFC fight.
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'The Eagle' vacated the title - that Oliveira would later win - the following year and retired from the sport with a flawless record of 29-0.
Oliveira previously admitted that he would rather take a money fight with McGregor than defend his belt against No.1 contender Gaethje.
“If I had the chance [in the past] to fight for the belt or fight Conor, everybody knows I’d fight for the belt,” Oliveira told MMAFighting.
“That already happened, I’m the champion now; the champion has a name and his name is Charles Oliveira, Charles ‘do Bronx.’ If I had the chance to fight Conor for money today, I would.
"The belt is mine and continues being mine. We’ll continue building our legacy and making history.”
