Fight fans are patiently waiting to see what comes next for UFC superstar Conor McGregor. The UFC lightweight champion made his professional boxing debut earlier this summer, taking on boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. inside the T-Mobile Arena.
After suffering a TKO loss to the still undefeated boxing legend, “Notorious” is now likely bound for an octagon return. However, the next opponent for the champion is still unclear.
McGregor recently offered a social media message that simply stated, “Tony.” The message has since been believed to be referencing McGregor’s interest in taking on the newly crowned UFC interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson.
Tony pic.twitter.com/IhPaemJP30
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) October 13, 2017
Speaking on his podcast Joe Rogan Experience, UFC commentating veteran Joe Rogan broke down his thoughts on the matter. As transcribed by MMA Fighting, here is what Rogan had to say:
“Conor made that post to Tony. 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**ker, 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.”
That being said, Tony Ferguson is not the only opponent on fight fans minds when it comes to Conor McGregor. Nate Diaz has faced off against “Notorious” twice now, choking him out in their first match and losing by a close decision in their rematch. Joe Rogan believes that a fight against Nate Diaz would be the more lucrative offer for Conor McGregor.
“The whole world doesn’t know Tony but the MMA world knows Tony, for sure. 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**k. 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**k 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.”
