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“Gaethje is a horrible fight for anyone in this division. If I’m Conor I’m going for Poirier or Cowboy.”
Conor McGregor claims to be making a UFC comeback in January, but against whom?
Former UFC welterweight title challenger turned commentator and analyst Dan Hardy believes McGregor should return to the cage against a familiar foe, citing Dustin Poirier as the best possible matchup for ‘The Notorious’ at this time. As a second option, Hardy wouldn’t mind seeing McGregor lock horns with UFC fan favorite Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone, but Justin Gaethje might have something to say about that.
Gaethje KO’d Cerrone in the first round of the UFC Fight Night 158 main event last month, and Hardy believes the former WSOF lightweight champ would be a horrible matchup for McGregor. In fact, Gaethje is a horrible matchup for just about anyone on the UFC roster, according to ‘The Outlaw’.
“If Conor is coming back to fight there are a couple of fights that make sense,” Hardy told Metro.co.uk in a recent interview. “The Poirier fight is the one that makes sense to me, that’s the top of my list. Conor has a win over Poirier at featherweight. I also don’t feel Poirier was the best version of himself at featherweight. I feel he’s a better fighter at lightweight.
“Conor getting another win over Poirier at lightweight is impressive and would line him up as No.1 contender, if not a title shot. Cowboy is another good win floating around because you can validate any fighter with a win over Cowboy. Conor’s been out for a while so Cowboy might be a good reintroduction to the division.
“Gaethje is a horrible fight for anyone in this division. If I’m Conor I’m going for Poirier or Cowboy,” Hardy continued. “I don’t mind the Gaethje fight. I just think that’s a more risky fight for Conor to take. Gaethje is a different animal since his last couple of losses. He’s picking his shots and not taking as much risks. He’s got a great wrestling game too. Conor will feel more comfortable up against Poirier’s wrestling as he would be against Gaethje’s. Gaethje is a much riskier fight for Conor than anybody else, including Khabib. I feel he’s got a good read on Khabib now so he’ll have a better chance of beating Khabib than Gaethje.”
While McGregor is adamant about returning to the Octagon on Jan. 18, UFC president Dana White says he isn’t even close to signing a deal with the former two-division champion.
“Yes, we are targeting that date for Conor’s return but no deals are even close to being signed.”