Who is next for McGregor, Ferguson or Diaz?
Joe Rogan: “[Nate Diaz] is the money [fight]. . . [But] Nate made four million bucks over two fights and he don’t give a f@$%. He’s like, ‘Pay Me.’”
Conor McGregor is the biggest draw in combat sports, but has never defended either of his UFC belts. He was asked recently to discuss possible next opponents, and named eight, but the number seems to be reduced to two – a title unification fight with Interim champ Tony Ferguson, or a trilogy fight with Nate Diaz.
UFC president Dana White said the former fight should come next, and Notorious apparently agrees.
Tony pic.twitter.com/IhPaemJP30
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) October 13, 2017
On the most recent Fight Companion edition of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, UFC commentator Joe Rogan agreed too.
Conor made that post to Tony, said Rogan, as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting. He made an Instagram post. Grand Theft Auto with him holding a gun, driving a boat. Conor’s smart. He realizes that Tony’s an unusual, eccentric character. Conor’s an unusual, eccentric character, Tony’s an unusual, eccentric character too and Tony has the longest win streak in the UFC’s 155-pound division. He’s the interim champion and he’s the logical fight. He’s a bad motherf***er, no doubt, and a legitimate champion.”
Conor sells like f***king crazy and Conor versus Tony sells because Tony’s a legit threat. Conor versus a legit threat sells. Conor fighting someone sells but Conor versus a legit threat is where it gets interesting.
One potential roadblock is money. Ferguson’s title fight vs. Kevin Lee is estimated to have done 120,000 PPV buys. McGregor’s fights with Diaz did more than ten times that amount.
The whole world doesn’t know Tony but the MMA world knows Tony, for sure,” said Rogan. “But the regular people are the people you really need to get ahold of to buy pay-per-views. [Nate] is the money [fight]. . . [But] Nate made four million bucks over two fights and he don’t give a f***. He’s like, ‘Pay Me.’ He beat Conor and in the second fight he arguably had a draw with Conor. He lost a decision based on a couple people’s opinion. Public opinion means a lot and if you went online and asked people who you think won that fight, I bet you would get very close to 50/50 Nate versus Conor. . .
Those guys are rivals man and Nate choked him the f*** out in the first fight. That’s always gonna be there. . . The big money would be the Nate Diaz fight even if Nate beat him in the second fight.
You think you can go to the gas station right now and go, ‘Hey man, who’s Tony Ferguson?’ If you go to the average person and ask them who Nate Diaz is, way more people are gonna know who he is than Tony.
