It was recently announced that Conor McGregor will be returning to the Octagon in January to take on Donald Cerrone, in what has all the hallmarks of an epic fight. However more than a few of us were surprised to find out that this fight would be taking place at welterweight. Both McGregor and Cerrone’s last fights came in the lightweight division, which left fans scratching their heads as to why either man would want to fight at the heavier weight.
Dana White has since revealed that it was the Irishman who wanted the fight at 170, which Cerrone was happy to agree to. After confirming the fight would take place at welterweight, White went on to explain why McGregor wanted the fight at this weight, saying “Mainly because he doesn’t want to have to cut the weight to 155. Him and Cerrone have both fought at 170. He’s hoping that he beats Cerrone and can turn right around and fight Khabib as quick as possible So he didn’t want to make the cut twice.”
It’s logic that doesn’t entirely make sense, given the fact that Khabib is currently slated to defend his belt against Tony Ferguson for the title in March, two months after McGregor fights Cerrone. Following that, if he wins, Khabib will take time away from fighting and training to observe Ramadan which runs through to the end of May, meaning his earliest return to the Octagon is likely August. So McGregor would have 9 months to recover from his cut if he wanted to go straight into a fight with Khabib.
Conor McGregor is being silly
However that isn’t the least logical part of this notion. The fact that McGregor, who hasn’t fought since his loss to Khabib in October 2018, would be granted a title shot after just one fight back is ridiculous. A fight that would come against Donald Cerrone, who is currently riding a two fight losing streak and could potentially be looking at this as his last fight. Not to mention that the fight isn’t even taking place in the same weight class as the one the title shot would be granted in. It makes absolutely no sense at all for that fight to happen.
It can be argued that there aren’t too many clear contenders left in the division if Khabib takes out Tony in March, as he has already beaten most of the top guys in the weight class, however Justin Gaethje looks like he could be on his way to earning a shot at the very least. A man who is currently riding a three fight winning streak against some of the toughest guys in the division and is an incredibly exciting fighter to watch.
If Khabib decided that he wasn’t interested in that fight, there’s always the possibility of him moving up to 170, to start rampaging through the division there. Both of those options make far, far more sense than a McGregor rematch… or at least they would actually uphold the integrity of the sport rather than just trying to do whatever they think would make the most money.
Realistically, I’m not even sure that Khabib vs McGregor 2 is much of a money spinner. Going into their first fight, most fans knew that McGregor needed to land one hell of a shot to have a chance of winning that fight, but in the end he was dominated both on the feet and on the ground. Why would we want to watch that again? I can’t see the fight going any better for McGregor, honesty I think it could only really go worse.
The only silver lining that comes with this news, is that it came from the mouth of Dana White, which means it is anything but set in stone.
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