Conor McGregor’s long-time coach John Kavanagh has claimed that the Irish superstar’s next fight should be officially unveiled this week.
“Whoever it is, I believe it is going to be announced this week,” Kavanagh stated on a podcast with Whoa TV. “And whoever it is, there will be a group of fans that will go, ‘Oh, I didn’t want to see that, I wanted to see this (instead).’ No matter who you pick, there’s gonna be people happy and there’s gonna be people unhappy.”
At this stage the smart money appears to be on an immediate rematch between McGregor and Nate Diaz, who became the first man to defeat ‘The Notorious’ in the UFC’s Octagon at UFC 196 courtesy of a second round rear-naked choke.
“People want to see it,” Diaz said last week when asked about the rumors. “When you get a real fight, people appreciate it. If he wants it and the UFC wants it, let’s run it back.”
The likes of Frankie Edgar and Jose Aldo will meanwhile be hoping that the UFC has a change of heart and decide to bring McGregor back down to featherweight to defend his title against one of them.
Some people, including UFC color commentator Joe Rogan, believe that McGregor Vs Edgar is the fight to make, but others have suggested that perhaps that particularly match-up should be put on the backburner for now, and perhaps be looked at later in the year as a potential bout for the UFC’s debut at Madison Square Garden in New York City now that the sport has been legalized there.
Whoever McGregor’s next opponent turns out to be, the expectation is that the fight will serve as the headliner for the blockbuster UFC 200 event on July 9th in Las Vegas, which the promotion will be hoping can top McGregor’s last fight which almost broke their all-time pay-per-view record with 1.5 milllion buys.
