Floyd Mayweather versus Conor McGregor is in the books, and now Conor’s flirtation with boxing is over (for now). The UFC lightweight champion needs to head back to the Octagon to remind the MMA world who is king, but he needs to find a dancing partner first.
McGregor’s manager, Audie Attar, listed McGregor’s potential future opponents to MMA Junkie, and the options are obvious, but still intriguing.
“He wants that trilogy (with Diaz). You’ve got Khabib calling him out, then you obviously have Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee who are fighting for the interim lightweight title. You have Max Holloway, who is the 145 champ now, who Conor beat after blowing out his ACL at the beginning of the fight. You have options, and he loves mixed martial arts.
“Everyone is like, ‘Oh, he’s going to retire – he made so much money.’ He’s ambitious. He’s super ambitious, and he loves to fight. He loves to compete and he’s a superb professional athlete. So there’s much more of Conor McGregor that everybody will see, and we’ll see what’s next.”
Let’s break down what this means and by the likelihood of each.
Khabib Nurmagomedov: Khabib is a star in his own right, but he has fought just four times in the last four years then had to drop out of his interim lightweight title fight against Tony Ferguson the day before the fight due to a bad weight cut. Conor isn’t likely to put stock in a guy who hasn’t shown up to fight (see: the Jose Aldo mess), and Khabib is a terrible stylistic matchup for Conor. It’s not likely.
Tony Ferguson: This would be a hell of a fight, and Tony Ferguson deserves a title shot, but no one really knows who Tony Ferguson is. So why fight a killer who won’t elevate the fight into the spectacle McGregor wants?
Kevin Lee: Also a good fighter, and the least-known fighter of them all. No way this happens.
Max Holloway: Becoming somewhat more popular with fans, but not really. He’s a hell of a fighter but there’s no way McGregor goes back to looking like a skeleton at weigh-ins. The 145-pound belt is Holloway’s now, he just never beat the rightful champ for it, and has lost to McGregor before. Maybe he comes up to 155 to challenge Mac for the lightweight title, but why would McGregor give him a rematch?
Nate Diaz: The co-star of two of the biggest fights in UFC history and tied 1-1 with McGregor after Mac got a majority decision back at UFC 202. The trilogy must be completed, and it would be a massive show that would give the fans what they want, and what McGregor seems to seek in his career: Peace of mind and clear conclusions to challenges. This is probably the most likely scenario. It mucks up the lightweight division further, it makes little sense in terms of sport, but it will make a ton of money and make the fans happy, so…
(Via MMA Junkie)
