Conor McGregor is back matchmaking, he claims he’ll take the BMF belt from Justin Gaethje and then complete the trilogy fight with Nate Diaz.
The Conor McGregor potential match-up train is taking twists and turns daily it seems. As you’ll see from our piece earlier this week he responded ‘Signed’ to a tweet from Justin Gaethje about a contract for a potential BMF fight.
‘The Notorious’ hasn’t fought for more than 2 years now while he’s been recovering from a leg break against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264, a fight that he lost. Since then Conor has been a coach against Michael Chandler on the latest season of TUF.
As is the norm with TUF the coaches usually line up to fight each other after the season has concluded, however with Conor, nothing is guaranteed and the Michael Chandler fight now looks to be out of the Irishman’s plans for a return fight.
Conor McGregor tweets on Diaz rematch
Nate Diaz is currently preparing for a boxing match against Jake Paul and has been doing all the media this week.
In a now-deleted tweet, Conor had this to say about the Diaz trilogy fight:
“Regardless of that nonsense match me and Nate will be completing the trilogy. I am going to go grab that bmf belt right quick for us to compete for it in the trilogy.”
This fight would certainly captivate the fanbase and do huge PPV numbers. The MMA world has been asking for this fight since Conor won the second fight by majority decision in 2016.
Rating the Potential Matches
If we follow ‘Mac the Matchmaker’ and have a look and rate at the 3 potential matches based on suitability for McGregor:
Michael Chandler
The pair have been verbally jousting on the latest season of TUF and this has got fans anticipating a match between the two. However with Conor not entering USADA in time for a November or December date that match has been in question since May.
The fight is an exciting comeback for McGregor stylistically, Chandler fights on the front foot and looks to land big shots on his opponents. In the past this has played into Conors style with his counter-punching skills and timing. Chandler is very dangerous and has a high calibre wrestling base that he could go back to if needed.
Given the name value and potential danger for Conor, this match gets a 6/10.
Justin Gaethje
Since Justin was asked about Conor in the post-fight press conference of UFC 291 the MMA world has been thinking about a BMF match between Justin & Conor. Justin initially turned it down.
Fast forward a few days and Justin goads Conor by stating “Sign the contract big boy” to which Conor replied simply with “Signed”, which would lead us to believe that something is happening with this fight.
At this point in time Justin Gaethje represents a bad match for Conor, the leg kicks will be a massive problem for Conor who has been susceptible to them in the past. Furthermore Gaethjes new found patient approach would cause problems with Conors timing and opportunities to find shots.
While this would be an excellent opportunity to get a belt and Justin has name value, it’s potentially bad matchup for McGregor, this match gets a 4/10.
Nate Diaz
Nate Diaz has fought out his UFC contract. Therefore the trilogy fight is unlikely to happen, but in the run-up to Diaz v Paul talk of the fight has started to gain traction. McGregor himself tweeted about it and Nate has hinted at returning to MMA once this fight is done.
The fight makes a lot of sense, the second fight in the trilogy was extremely close, with some saying that Nate should have won the decision. Conor picked up the win in the end bringing the saga to 1-1 after a Diaz submission in the first fight.
Furthermore, the fanfare surrounding the fight is unprecedented in MMA and combat sports so it will attract the casual audience that the UFC wants to tap into. Additionally at this stage of both fighters’ careers and their relevance in the lightweight (or welterweight) division makes it a perfect storm.
Given all of the variables surrounding this fight it’s an easy sell across the board, if the UFC can get Diaz on board again. This match gets a 10/10.
What do you think about the potential McGregor matches? Who would you like to see him fight and how would you rate each matchup?
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
