Obsession is one strange bedfellow. In the past, Conor McGregor has said that he has nearly lost his sanity, such is his focus on MMA and his desire to be the best. The Irishman’s dominance of the UFC took a bit of a shellacking at UFC 196 when Nate Diaz, who took the fight on 11 days notice, submitted him with a rear naked choke in their welterweight (170 pounds) fight.
Remember, McGregor is the 145-pound champ, and he moved up two weight divisions for his last fight. It was thought that the Dublin native would move back down to the 145-pound division to defend his belt. Well, nothing is simple for “The Notorious” one. UFC president Dana White took to ESPN on Wednesday to confirm that McGregor and Diaz would rematch at 170 pounds at UFC 200 on July 9 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. We’ll let White explain how the fight came about:
White also posted this fight poster on his Twitter account:
But what is McGregor thinking? Has he lost the plot? Will the will to avenge the loss to Diaz tear down the castle of cash and notoriety he has so skillfully built up? How much better will Diaz be with a full training camp, knowing that he can take McGregor’s best shots and hurt him with his own punches on 11 days notice? These are the questions that will be answered on July 9. Also announced was another rematch, this time between Frankie Edgar and Jose Aldo with the interim featherweight title on the line. White also confirmed to ESPN that the winner of this fight will fight McGregor next at 145 pounds.
Even though White said McGregor’s coach, John Kavanagh, was against the rematch, the SBG Ireland supremo explained in his column on the the42.ie why this fight is so important to McGregor, saying:
“Conor chased this rematch. That’s how it has come about. He’s much more concerned about trying to give a perfect representation of his ability than he is about material things like belts or money. That’s just a fact. Money is certainly not a motivating factor anymore because he has already made plenty of it.
Conor believes that the last fight didn’t accurately reflect the skills and ability he possesses, so he’s eager to address that. He ended up harassing UFC president Dana White and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta on a daily basis for a rematch. This is the fight that’s of most interest to him right now.”
