Owen Roddy of SBG, who spent UFC 205 in Conor McGregor's corner and recording some pretty great video, appeared alongside Ariel Helwani on tonight's edition of the MMA Hour.
Naturally, McGregor was the main topic of conversation, with talk inevitably turning towards the identity of McGregor's next opponent. Khabib Nurmagomedov has long-since made vocal his hopes of earning a major pay-day against McGregor.
Despite the Russian's pleas, his shot against McGregor is far from guaranteed, with a move back up to welterweight becoming an ever-more discussed option. First of all, John Kavanagh told Ariel Helwani last week that a second rematch with Nate Diaz at welterweight would be his preferred option, and Roddy has echoed that sentiment in expressing his preference for a move back to welterweight.
But while Kavanagh mentioned Diaz as his preferred opponent, Roddy dropped the name of Tyrone Woodley, before mentioning Diaz again.
Here's his response when asked by Helwani as to who would be his pick for the next fight:
Eh, maybe [Tyron] Woodley. For him [McGregor] to go up and fight for a third belt...so maybe Woodley.
Diaz again is a great one. It's what fans would want to see again. The fans would want to see something special. The Diaz fight would be special. The Woodley fight would be special too.
Helwani then asked Roddy of his opinion of Khabib as a potential opponent:
You can't really doubt Khabib. He is a phenomenal grappler, he is a phenomenal wrestler. But I'm not sure the excitement is there. Obviously for Conor it's about the pay per views and the money, whether Khabib would hit the pay per views for him, I'm not so sure. But he is definitely there or thereabouts.
But they're the three names. Khabib, Woodley, because it would be insane and obviously you can't argue with the Nate fight again.
Who knows. I always say after a fight is the most exciting part, becasue you just don't know. Conor could say 'Oh, I'm going to fight at middleweight' and he can do it, because everything he says he'll do, he does, he always backs it up.
So while Roddy acknowledges the challenge of Khabib, it would appear that a step back up to welterweight is what enthuses McGregor's corner the most.
As always, however, it will come down to what McGregor himself wants to do.
Watch the full interview below.
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