Recently Conor McGregor turned heads by reporting he has his sights set on making a title run in the UFC’s welterweight division. Well, following those comments, Kamaru Usman fired a verbal warning at McGregor, and now the champ’s doubled down on his response.
In recent weeks there’s been a lot of buzz about McGregor fighting welterweight contender Jorge Masvidal, on account of the fact he holds the BMF title, which McGregor has said he wants. But, more recently, McGregor made headlines by saying that he’s not only interested in fighting Masvidal at 170, he wants the division’s belt.
Well, Usman responded to those comments initially by saying McGregor’s welterweight aspirations could lead to a “nightmare”. But, since then, Usman told MMA Fighting the following:
“It is a [mismatch],” Usman said. “More power to him, anything is possible. A fight is a fight, anything can happen. But just being real, that’s a tremendous mismatch. I think I would hurt him really, really bad.”
“I mean we saw what Khabib [Nurmagomedov] did to him,” he said. “He had to take some time off after the Khabib fight,” Usman said. “Now imagine him fighting me. I don’t think we ever see him back in the sport.”
“Conor doesn’t even really make sense,” Usman said. “Sure, if he comes in the division and beats someone pretty high up there and really makes the case for himself that he can really handle himself in the division, then absolutely I would entertain that fight.”
Ya. There’s likely a lot of people who think the fight would be more competitive than Usman thinks, and even some who believe Conor would win. But, on account of Usman’s size, wrestling and power, it’s hard to imagine him not being the favorite to win the fight.
But, as it stands right now, several things need to happen before a fight between Usman and McGregor is even a possibility. First up, McGregor has to get by Donald Cerrone on January 18th. If that happens, he’ll be in the mix to fight the winner of the April 18th bout between lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson.
Now, if McGregor does elect to fight Masvidal after UFC 246, and if he were to beat “Gamebred”, a title shot at 170 could be tabled. But, would McGregor opt to go that route? Versus trying to reclaim the lightweight title? It’s hard to say. He might, if Khabib beats Ferguson and insists he won’t rematch McGregor yet.
One thing is for certain: if McGregor defeats “Cowboy” at UFC 246, things are going to get really, really interesting.
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