McGregor talks about who he might fight next
Conor McGregor: “I would be interested in an Anderson Silva bout. I swear to God. Anderson is a legend in the game. What’s the difference between him and Georges? Same damn thing.”
Almost one year to the day, then UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor made an appearance at An Evening with Conor McGregor at Glasgow’s SEC Armadillo venue. Speaking with Caroline Pearce, McGregor mused about who he might fight next, naming the winner of Tony Ferguson vs. Kevin Lee, a trilogy fight vs. Nate Diaz, boxing Paulie Malignaggi or rematch Floyd Mayweather, plus Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, Georges St-Pierre, and others.
A year on, it’s now new lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov. During an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show, Notorious again mused about who might be next.
“I’m certainly considering a few options,” said McGregor, as transcribed by ESPN staff writer Greg Rosenstein. “There’s this fight and the co-main (Tony Ferguson vs. Anthony Pettis). Of course then there’s boxing ventures. I’m very excited about that.
“If [Mayweather] has the bottle to come over and deal with this, like he said he has, let’s see what happens. I would also like to box him again. Everything is being discussed. Every rule set. If it’s not an MMA bout, then I don’t want to know. It’s either a straight MMA bout or a straight boxing bout. If they come looking for modified rules, I would rather just box the kid again. If you don’t want to deal with it, then don’t deal with it and stop going on like you’re doing.”
“We’ll see what happens, but I don’t think [GPS is] next,” he said. “He doesn’t really have anything for me personally. I’m not going to shut the door on that down the line. You know what would be another great one? Anderson Silva. I would be interested in an Anderson Silva bout. I swear to God. Anderson is a legend in the game. What’s the difference between him and Georges? Same damn thing. I’m going to do fights that interest me or have meaning.”
“Nate Diaz will always have a rematch off of me. No matter what happens, I will always give that man his rematch. He gave me a rematch, I give him a rematch. That’s the way it is. When it will happen, I don’t know. We will complete that trilogy, no doubt about it.”
In bad news for MMA fans, McGregor’s new UFC contract allows him to box without the league taking a share of profits. As the money is better in boxing, that’s a strong incentive. But first, of course, there is Saturday night.