McGregor coach questions whether Nurmagomedov is a PPV draw

Conor McGregor’s head striking coach Owen Roddy appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and discussed some of the potential opponent’s for the next fight. There are a number of options, after May when McGregor’s first child is born, and the UFC gives him equity.

If McGregor keeps the featherweight belt, the next fight could be Jose Aldo. If McGregor keeps the lightweight belt, the next fight could be Khabib Nurmagomedov or Tony Ferguson, or the winner of a fight between the two. Or McGregor could go up to welterweight to fight Tyron Woodley, or the winner of a Woodley vs. Wonderboy rematch. Or McGregor could have a trilogy fight with Nate Diaz, presumably at lightweight. Or McGregor could box Floyd Mayweather.

“Maybe Woodley?” said Roddy, as transcribed by Anton Tabuena for BE. “For me, go up and go for three belts, maybe Woodley.

But Diaz again as well is another great one, because I think it’s what fans would want to see. They want to see something special again. The Diaz fight again is special. The Woodley fight is special.”

“You can’t really doubt Khabib at this stage now. He’s a phenomenal grappler, a phenomenal wrestler, but I don’t know whether the excitement is there. Obviously, for Conor it’s about the pay-per-views, about the money. Whether Khabib will hit the pay-per-views for him, I don’t know, but he’s definitely there. And he poses a different threat, so it would be good to try and work out the strikes that are going to land on him.

“He can be hit as well, I will say that. He got hit a bit [vs . Horcher] and the same again [vs . Johnson]. I believe that if you give Conor a chance to land once, I don’t know whether people can come back from that. But it would be definitely an interesting fight. They’re the three names I suppose: Khabib, Woodley — because it would be just insane. Can you imagine the excitement of that? That would be crazy — and then obviously you can’t argue with the Nate fight again.

“Who knows? I always say after a fight, I never know what’s going to happen, but that’s part of the excitement. Conor could just say, ‘yeah, I’m going to fight a middleweight.’ And he could do it, because everything he says he’s going to do, he does. He backs it up.”

So there you go. It could be any of the names at top, or it could even be at middleweight.