Conor McGregor’s next bout has been the subject of intense speculation since pretty much the moment his fight against Floyd Mayweather ended. A TKO loss to the boxing legend in August didn’t hurt the Irish star’s ability to draw any, and since that point, the question has been: what’s next?
Now, at his most recent An Evening with Conor McGregor event (held Friday at Glasgow’s SEC Armadillo), the UFC lightweight champion addressed the subject head on. Among the options? The Nate Diaz trilogy fight, the winner of Kevin Lee vs. Tony Ferguson, or perhaps another boxer — in the ring, or in the cage.
McGregor told those in attendance (via MMA Fighting) that “there’s an interim belt on the line right now – that’s an option,” then added that “of course the Nate Diaz trilogy fight is there. Maybe one of these boxing guys…maybe Malignaggi would come over and do an MMA bout…or Floyd, maybe I could entice Floyd back.”
“We could either do a rematch in boxing, or like he said originally, we’ll do an MMA fight next. They are the options that are on the table for me right now.”
Expanding further, he told host Caroline Pearce in regards to the UFC 216 title fight between Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee that “too many of them pull out right at the wire and we’re still not at this fight yet, so I’m just going to pray that this one goes ahead. Of course Nate is still there waiting, but he’ll be left waiting until we figure something out.”
“I’m just going to put a few options out there and see what bounces back” he continued. “It’s got to excite me, let me see what these two fools do this weekend. We’ll see what the energy is like.”
In McGregor’s mind, the fight needs to interest him, and the contenders need to fight. While many would point their finger at the two-division champion, McGregor tackled that criticism head on.
“They’re talking about me fighting?” he questioned. “I’m the one going into other peoples’ domains and fighting. They’re sitting on Twitter typing away and complaining. I’m in there trying to do it.”
Also singled out for consideration were Justin Gaethje and Khabib Nurmagomedov, though in regards to the latter, McGregor stated that “Khabib in Russia would be a great one. It would be a crazy one. We’ll see what happens. I’ll need to see him make weight though. There’s no way I’m going over there and he’s not making weight. I need assurance.”
One thing is for certain, when McGregor does return, all eyes will be on him, love him or hate him.
