UFC 202 headliners Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz are again fighting outside their respective weight classes, so naturally, a lot of people are interested in what divisions they’ll be competing at next. Diaz is expected to drop back down to lightweight, while people are split on what McGregor decides to do.
His coach John Kavanagh says he prefers if McGregor goes to 155 next, while UFC matchmakers and even Dana White say they believe it will be at 145 lbs. As for McGregor himself, he did field some questions on the topic during UFC 202 media day in Las Vegas.
“They’re praying I don’t come back,” McGregor said of the other featherweights. “I’ve beaten everybody in the division. If Frankie had won, after all the sh*t he was talking, his team was talking, it would’ve been set in stone, and I would’ve shut that man up. But he got slapped around on that fight, couldn’t do nothing against a guy I KO’d in one shot.”
“I just have to see what happens after this fight. I’m the featherweight world champion. The guy I KO’d is holding the interim world championship. What does that tell you? That I’m leaps and bounds ahead of that featherweight division.”
McGregor did say that he is walking around lighter this time around, and his coach says this is why it’s still possible to cut down to 145 lbs. Regardless of where he fights next, McGregor still claims that he’s planning on defending that featherweight crown eventually.
“I’m the world champion, of course I’m going to defend that title sometime in the future, but we’ll see what happens after this fight.”
As for those lofty goals of holding titles in other divisions, his loss to “a much bigger man” in Diaz didn’t deter him from trying to achieve them.
“You’re damn right it’s (I plan to be two-division world champion),” he said. “If Dos Anjos hadn’t pussied out of our last fight, the shots I hit Nate with in the first 8 or 9 minutes would’ve KO’d Dos Anjos. I would be sitting here with a belt here, and a belt there.”
“But some things happen for a reason, and it forced me to reevaluate before things got too sloppy. I’m happy it happened, but most certainly I envision two, possibly three, belts on my shoulder.”
Current title holders at lightweight and welterweight are heavy hitters Eddie Alvarez and Tyron Woodley respectively.
About the author
