Getty UFC President Dana White (C) separates Nate Diaz (L) and UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor (R) as they face off during their weigh-in for UFC 202.
With UFC 246 in the books, and Conor “Notorious” McGregor’s comeback a success, the conversation of who he should fight next is in full throttle. One name that is always mentioned as a potential opponent is his rival, Nate Diaz. The two have fought each other twice, each winning one bout. Diaz defeated Notorious by rear-naked choke in the second round of the main event for UFC 196. Then, the two met again in the main event for UFC 202, when Notorious avenged his loss against Diaz by winning a majority decision.
The rivalry between the two and the prospect of a trilogy fight is alive and well, with Diaz live-tweeting during UFC 246. He ended up tweeting something that a journalist asked McGregor about during the UFC 246 post-fight press conference.
After McGregor took out Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in 40 seconds, Diaz tweeted:
The tweet reads: “Weak as f—k.”
It’s unclear if Diaz was referring to Notorious or Cowboy, or the fight in general. But, whatever the case may be, it can be perceived as a shot fired at McGregor.
When asked about it during the post-fight press conference, Notorious responded with a call out:
“Let’s go, Nathan. Let’s go, brother; number three. It’s always here, so we’re right here, Nathan.”
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McGregor Has a Lot More Options for a Next Opponent Than Solely Nate Diaz
If you just read or listened to that statement, it would seem that a fight between McGregor and Diaz next would be a foregone conclusion. But, the Irishman has been linked to countless other fighters, and he is not committing to one name.
McGregor is currently a potential opponent for Jorge Masvidal, Kamaru Usman, Nate Diaz, as well as Khabib Nurmagomedov or Tony Ferguson if one of them gets hurt before their UFC 249 bout. And these matches are only the UFC fights that McGregor has recently spoken about.
He is also interested in boxing again, and he has named three potential opponents. Naturally, McGregor is looking for a rematch against Floyd Mayweather. He is also drawn to a bout with Manny Pacquiao, a fight that he revealed to ESPN reporter Ariel Helwani as something currently in the works. Notorious has also expressed that he would like to box his former training partner and rival Paulie Malignaggi.
During McGregor’s UFC 246 post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, McGregor mentioned that he still isn’t where he wants to be in terms of performance. Considering he has fought Diaz twice and the bout is known territory to the Irishman, he may consider a match with Diaz to give himself some more cage time.
However, Diaz has never been an easy outing for Notorious. Diaz finished McGregor in the second round of their first fight, and then fought McGregor to an extremely close majority decision loss in their second match.