Conor McGregor has expressed an interest in fighting for the welterweight title if he defeats Donald Cerrone, but current champion Kamaru Usman thinks that would be a big mistake for the Irish superstar.
“It is a [mismatch],” Usman told mmafighting.com. “More power to him, anything is possible. A fight is a fight, anything can happen. But just being real, that’s a tremendous mismatch. I think I would hurt him really, really bad.”
“I mean we saw what Khabib [Nurmagomedov] did to him. He had to take some time off after the Khabib fight. Now imagine him fighting me. I don’t think we ever see him back in the sport.”
Most fighters are eager to cash in on the possibility of fighting McGregor, but Usman questions whether ‘The Notorious’ would actually deserve a 170lb title shot at this stage given his current form.
“Conor doesn’t even really make sense,” Usman said. “Sure, if he comes in the division and beats someone pretty high up there and really makes the case for himself that he can really handle himself in the division, then absolutely I would entertain that fight.”
There are other potential options for McGregor first if he does get past ‘Cowboy’, with Jorge Masvidal being the most obvious one, but ‘The Notorious’ has indicated he’s prioritizing winning another ‘real’ UFC title rather than the recently introduced ‘BMF’ title.
