Conor McGregor is slated to rematch Nate Diaz, who submitted him last March, in the main event of August’s UFC 202 in a welterweight bout, once again putting the featherweight division on hold by opting not to defend his title.
There has been speculation that McGregor may never return to 145-pounds, and his long-time head coach John Kavanagh isn’t sure either, although he would like to see McGregor defend the strap against former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar:
“The short answer is I don’t know,” Kavanagh told Jonathan Shrager of the MMAUnderground when asked about McGregor’s return to 145. “I’m very intrigued to see the Aldo and Edgar fight.”
Edgar will face off with Aldo for the second time at UFC 200 next month with the interim featherweight strap hanging in the balance. Aldo is coming off of a brutal 13 second knockout loss to McGregor last December, and Kavanagh hopes he took the time to recover properly:
“I hope Aldo is fully recovered from the bad knockout. I thought (Chad) Mendes went back in there really quick after the knockout against Conor,” Kavanagh said. “People don’t realize the damage it does — it takes a long time to recover, and I think Mendes went down quicker in that fight because of that. Maybe if he’d let himself rest a bit more he might have had more fight for Edgar. I hope that’s not the case for Aldo, (I hope) we get to see a solid version of Aldo and a new kind of improved Edgar, and see what different from the first fight. So yea, let’s see that, and assess after the rematch. It’s kind of those two names and (Max) Holloway kind of in the mix, so it’s an interesting time.”
Holloway is indeed another name in the title discussion, as he’s won a division best nine straight since dropping a decision loss to the “Notorious” one in 2013. Kavanagh thinks quite highly of “Blessed”, and a rematch between him and McGregor is another possibility for the future if the Irishman indeed drops back down to featherweight:
“I thought Holloway looked fantastic the other night [at UFC 199]. I’ve said it ever since Conor fought Max, I had him as the second best 145er in the division,” Kavanagh said. “I think he’s the best of them all. That’s just my own personal opinion. And he looked very, very good against Lamas — I was actually surprised he didn’t stop him, but Lamas is a tough guy, so, it went the distance. Holloway really stood out in that fight for me.”
After his rematch with Diaz, what do you see the lying ahead for McGregor?
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