McGregor is already making plans for his first BMF title defense after taking the belt off its current owner Justin Gaethje.
While Conor McGregor may be wavering on his commitment to fight Michael Chandler, there’s one opponent he knows he wants to face again for sure: Nate Diaz.
McGregor and Diaz are 1-1 after a series of fights in 2016 that sold more than three million pay-per-view (PPV) units combined. A rubber match was highly anticipated, but never came together because of various reasons. After defeating Diaz in their rematch, McGregor moved on to win UFC’s Lightweight title, then stepped outside the Octagon to box Floyd Mayweather.
He’s competed just four times in the cage in the six years since.
Diaz, meanwhile, took a three-year break from competition after the McGregor fights before going 2-2 to finish out his UFC contract. He’s now a free agent, and about to box Jake Paul this weekend (Sat., Aug 5, 2023) inside America Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. He’ll probably earn more money off that match up than he did in his two fights against McGregor. But, boxing fans and bookies also believe he’s about to get beaten by the bigger, younger, Paul.
No matter what happens in “The Lone Star State” this weekend, McGregor claims he still intends on wrapping up their fight series.
“Regardless of that nonsense match me and Nate will be completing the trilogy,” McGregor wrote in a since-deleted tweet. “I am going to go grab that BMF belt right quick for us to compete for it in the trilogy.”
McGregor hasn’t fought since breaking his leg badly in a fight with Dustin Poirier back in July 2021 (see it). UFC made him a coach on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 31 opposite Michael Chandler with the idea of the two fighting near the end of 2023. But, “The Notorious” still hasn’t re-entered the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) drug testing pool, making him ineligible to fight for now.
After Justin Gaethje beat Poirier at UFC 291 for the “Baddest Motherf—er” belt, McGregor has turned his attention away from Chandler. He and Gaethje have been going back-and-forth on Twitter, calling each other out for a fight. McGregor’s message about “grabbing that BMF belt” is just the latest sign he’s grown bored of the idea of facing “Iron” Mike Chandler.
“He calls himself Iron Mike Chandler cos he enjoys ironing clothes in his spare time,” Mac joked in another deleted tweet.
What’s talk and what’s not? Who knows these days with McGregor. Until he comes to an understanding with USADA regarding his participation in their program, there’ll be no fights for McGregor in UFC at all.
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