Barring injuries to either fighter, the UFC should end a tumultuous 2017 with their biggest fight of the year.
2016 was a record-breaking year for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, with four pay-per-view events bringing in well over a million buys and UFC 202 [headlined by Conor McGregor’s rematch with Nate Diaz] taking in over 1.6m PPVs.
In the entire promotion’s history, McGregor and Diaz’ two headliner PPVs have been the biggest in terms of buys [approx. 2.9m in North America], media attention and venue specific gate receipts.
Both fights were superb viewing, too, with Diaz forcing a submission in the first but losing the rematch on points.
It is no surprise, then, that ‘The Notorious’ is targeting the Diaz trilogy fight as his comeback bout in the UFC. As UFC lightweight champion, the decider will be for the 155lbs strap too.
Following his TKO loss to boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., McGregor told media members that finishing the trilogy against the Stockton fighter was high on his list of priorities. Then, in the space of an hour on Tuesday afternoon, two occurrences all but sealed the deal.
First up, McGregor’s striking coach Owen Roddy was on The MMA Hour to discuss the Mayweather bout. Pressed on the Dubliner’s next fight, he admitted that there may be a title defence pressed upon him when Kevin Lee and Tony Ferguson meet to decide an interim lightweight champion. Roddy commented:
“In my opinion, the reason I say Diaz is because those fights are so exciting. The build up is so exciting; the back and forth… there is nothing like it. It’s just a mad scene. The two fights against Diaz were probably the most exciting camps that I’ve been part of. To do that again would be unbelievable. As I see it, the fans would like that over everything else.”
Within the hour, Diaz was stoking the flames with a searing Instagram post about McGregor. Referring to his boxing debut, and defeat, the 32-year-old wrote:
‘He punched himself out the same way he lost in the UFC. There was no learning going on.’
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYq-PDfn8pv/?hl=en&taken-by=natediaz209
Having been in attendance for the McGregor-Mayweather clash, mocked the lightweight champion in a back-stage confrontation with Brendan Schaub and dropped in to Mayweather’s dressing room to help him celebrate, Diaz is playing his cards very well.
If both men stay fit, the UFC are said to be targeting the December 30 staging of UFC 219.
