Setting another division ablaze in New York this past weekend, Conor McGregor etched his name in the history books against Eddie Alvarez. Becoming the first multi-division boss with his dominant knockout win, ‘The Notorious’ is now the simultaneous lightweight and featherweight king. Considering the magnitude of his UFC 205 win, it’s no surprise that a myriad of potential fights lay ahead for the Irishman. Multiple divisions including both his championship weights and also talk of a welterweight title fight with Tyron Woodley have all been debated.
One fighter whose name came up instantly was Nate Diaz, the only man to beat McGregor in the UFC. Normally a lightweight, Diaz faced ‘The Notorious’ in a duo of welterweight tilts earlier this year. After he submitted McGregor in a wild affair at UFC 196, the Irish boxer repaid the favour with a thrilling yet arguably narrow decision win at UFC 202. Currently ranked as the number four lightweight in the UFC, a trilogy-making title fight would mean Diaz leapfrogging the likes of Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov.
McGregor vs. Diaz 3?
Speaking during this week’s episode of The MMA Hour, Conor McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh spoke about the biggest challenges in the lightweight division. Now his protégé is the boss at 155 pounds, Kavanagh reveals he believes Diaz to be the biggest threat, not Ferguson or Khabib:
“Nate, he’s such a good boxer. Like I said I do think, if I take away his circumstances, the Diaz 2 fight is my favorite fight. It’s the one I keep going back to, keep watching,” Kavanagh said. “Just technically, the 25 minutes in that, I learned so much in that. I thought it was a really, really nice fight. Two extremely skilled strikers.”
“I don’t think Nate gets nearly enough credit for how good he is and I think with his jiu-jitsu, incredible guard, incredible guillotines, incredible triangles, if the likes of Khabib or Tony was to shoot in on him because they would be getting lit up on the feet, I think he would finish them.”
99 Problems, But Not These Guys
Further explaining his opinion on the situation, Kavanagh points out the amount of strikes both ‘El Cucuy’ and ‘The Eagle’ absorbed in their bouts against Rafael dos Anjos and Michael Johnson, respectively. Diaz, renowned for his incredible durability, has the most ‘interesting’ set of problems for McGregor:
“A lot to learn in the preparation for them [Ferguson and Nurmagomedov] and both would be extremely interesting fights for me to watch, problems to solve and to see Conor beating both of them and how he did it would be very interesting for me.”
“[Nate] provides the most interesting set of problems. Like I said, Khabib, great fighter. I really enjoy his fights, enjoy watching from them and learning from them. I just thought in the opening two or three minutes of the Johnson fight we kind of saw what would happen if he was to face Conor. He got tagged quite a bit. I just think the sort of power and accuracy Conor brings, you know I’m sure Eddie had a great plan until 60 seconds in when he was scrambled and I don’t think it would go massively different if he was to face him [Khabib].”
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