Coach John Kavanagh would like to see Conor McGregor return to the Octagon against Nate Diaz.
Question marks still loom over Conor McGregor’s return to the UFC. No one is quite sure who the Irishman will face next, but longtime coach and friend John Kavanagh believes the fight to make is McGregor vs. Diaz III.
Speaking to ESPN in a recent interview Kavanagh, who heads SBG Ireland, said a third Diaz bout would be the ultimate comeback fight for ‘The Notorious.’
“I always loved the Diaz trilogy, I’ve kind of said that from the start,” Kavanagh said, per BJPenn.com’s Mike Pendleton. “I’m really looking forward to seeing how Nate looks in his fight coming up [against Anthony Pettis]. That would be just as a fan, very exciting. Justin Gaethje kind of reminds me of that similar style, you know he can take a tremendous amount of punishment and keep coming forward. Honestly if it’s Conor excited, motivated, and pushing himself hard, it doesn’t really matter all that much to me. Anybody in the UFC that Conor McGregor would be fighting are good opponents, they have different challenges. If you put a gun to me, it would be the Diaz trilogy.”
Coach @John_Kavanagh prefers Nate Diaz trilogy as next fight for @TheNotoriousMMA (via @arielhelwani) pic.twitter.com/kOkgbCfQ2s
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) June 17, 2019
McGregor, the former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion, was submitted by Diaz at UFC 196 but came back to win the rematch in a Fight of the Night and Fight of the Year classic at UFC 202, beating Diaz via majority decision at Madison Square Garden, New York.
Diaz, who hasn’t fought since UFC 202, will return to the Octagon against Anthony Pettis at the upcoming UFC 241 pay-per-view on Aug. 17 in Anaheim, California. The co-headlining bout will be contested at welterweight, and Diaz has no intentions of returning to the lightweight division anytime soon.
So, if McGregor does want a rematch with Diaz, the former ‘champ-champ’ will have to bulk up to welterweight again.
There’s also the possibility of a rematch with Khabib Nurmagomedov, who submitted McGregor last year at UFC 229. UFC president Dana White has hinted that McGregor could go on to face the winner of the upcoming lightweight title unification bout between Nurmagomedov and Dustin Poirier at UFC 242. The PPV extravaganza is scheduled to take place on Sept. 7 at du Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.