There's no doubting the man is a damn good salesman.
Lorenzo and I went up to Conor's house that he's renting here in Las Vegas and started talking about what are you thinking, what's next?
And he was obsessed - obsessed - with fighting Nate Diaz again. Obviously, Lorenzo and I tried to argue with him and say, 'Let's go back down to 45 and defend your title, or if you really want the Diaz fight that bad, do it at 55.'
But he wants to fight at 170. Even his coach, Kavanagh, tried to get him to get off this rematch and off the 170-pound fight but it's what he wanted. And he's going to get it.
That was Dana White speaking on SportsCenter not long after the headline bout for UFC 200 was announced. Every sports media outlet with even a passing interest in MMA ran with it. Why wouldn't you? That 'obsessed' quote is a great line.
Here's a fighter who put it all on the line, moved up two weights, lost and now is so determined to get it all back that he wants to go up to 170 once again just to prove that he can. What a man, what a fighter, what a story. Only it seems it may not be entirely true if you're to believe John Kavanagh.
The SBG coach penned another one of his insightful columns for the42.ie yesterday and, understandably, he was confident that lessons can be learned from the defeat at UFC 196. McGregor absolutely 'chased this rematch'. Kavanagh was clear about that but, with Nate Diaz looking to take the fight at 155, why the hell was McGregor supposedly so insistent on doing it at 170 and why did his team not agree with Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta and just accept that 155 was where the fight should take place?
That question was later put to Kavanagh on twitter and it seems someone is telling porkies in all this.
@davehighton83 initially thought 155 would suit both guys better. UFC insisted on 170. we agreed. not that much of a biggie.
— Coach Kavanagh (@John_Kavanagh) March 31, 2016
The UFC insisting on 170 is quite different from what White claimed on SportsCenter as outlined above. You still have to give McGregor and his team credit for being confident enough to take that on, but if both fighters (or at least their teams) seemingly wanted it at 155, why would the UFC insist on 170?
This now moves into pure speculation but it is quite possible that, at the end of the day, Rafael dos Anjos and that lightweight belt are still sitting there waiting for the McGregor magic to come along and turn the division into one of the most watched in the promotion. If McGregor loses to the no.5 ranked lightweight in a lightweight bout, then it's featherweight or nothing. However, if he loses to Diaz at 170 then the distinct possibility is still there that the lightweight title is still open to him.
Like we said, pure speculation, but someone is stretching the truth in all this and when that happens, the first question is to ask where 'is the money going'? In this instance, the answer to that is fairly obvious.
