EASY COME, EASY OCTAGONE

Everyone wants to know: who’s Conor McGregor going to fight next? Well, MMA fans, here are some scenarios.

FIGHTING FOR A FIGHT

MMAJunkie:

If it’s Tony Ferguson you’d like to see as Conor McGregor’s next opponent then you might like this. Audie Attar, who represents both fighters at Paradigm Sports Management, said during Monday’s episode of Michael Bisping’s “Believe You Me” podcast that it’s “inevitable” McGregor and Ferguson will eventually fight each other. “The sport is one where they’re going to compete,” Attar said. “If you have clients in the same weight class, and they’re the top of the division, they’re going to meet. … With Tony and Conor, it’s inevitable. You have the lightweight champ and the interim lightweight champ, so that’s a fight that’s naturally going to happen.”

Ferguson (23-3 MMA, 13-1 UFC), currently ranked No. 2 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA lightweight rankings, claimed the interim lightweight belt with an impressive submission win over Kevin Lee earlier this month at UFC 216. It was Ferguson’s 10th consecutive victory and seemingly put him in line to next face McGregor (21-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC) so they can unify the title.

A trilogy fight with Nate Diaz also has been talked about – to the point many consider Diaz the front-runner as the opponent in McGregor’s first title defense since he won the belt at UFC 205 in November 2016. Since then, McGregor has taken time off before competing in a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather in August, which he lost via 10th-round TKO. Originally, striking coach Owen Roddy believed a Diaz trilogy would happen upon McGregor’s return to MMA until he recently changed course and called a Ferguson title fight “more logical.” McGregor’s head coach, John Kavanagh, has said he prefers the Diaz trilogy.

Attar, meanwhile, wouldn’t go so far as to say McGregor-Ferguson will definitely happen next, because a third fight with Diaz does make sense to him. But Attar also believes in the importance of unifying the championship and the fact that Ferguson has earned his shot at McGregor. 

“No, I can’t say (who McGregor will fight next). Here’s what I will tell you: Tony earned a shot at the belt,” Attar said. “He won the interim lightweight title. Conor doesn’t shy away from a challenge. The Nate fight does make sense, obviously, because of the trilogy. They never fought at 155 (pounds), but they both make sense in their own respective way.“However, I do believe that when (McGregor and Ferguson) go at it, it will, in my opinion, validate the belt system. It will validate what a championship belt is all about.”

Hey, we don’t care, we just want to get it on! How about the rest of you UFC fans?