John Kavanagh Imagining A Scenario Where Conor McGregor Fights Nate Diaz In December

John Kavanagh has the perfect 2018 laid out in his mind and it involves Conor McGregor fighting both the winner of Tony Ferguson vs Khabib Nurmagomedov and Nate Diaz before 2019.

Early in 2017, the SBG head coach stated he’d like McGregor to have a trilogy fight with Diaz, but as time has gone on it appears his opinion has changed. Speaking to TheMacLife.com yesterday, Kavanagh explained why Diaz’s inactivity had now put him behind the winner of Ferguson vs Nurmagomedov.

“There’s a beautiful relationship between Conor and Nate, in terms of there [being] a great back and forth between them outside of the cage and inside of the cage,” Kavanagh said. It’s a lovely fight. His five-round rematch is still one of my favourite fights. That being said, I did assume that Nate would be as busy, or busier, than Conor. You know, Conor’s had an MMA fight and a boxing fight since. We haven’t seen Nate since so I started changing. You could see it among the fans who, I’ve always said and I still do believe, are the most important factor because they pay for the pay-per-views they want to see.

“It was clearly becoming that [the fans] wanted to see Khabib or Tony in there rather than Nate, probably for the same reason that Nate didn’t keep busy. So, I don’t think it would be quite right for [McGregor vs. Diaz III] to happen before the winner of Khabib/Tony because all of Conor, Khabib and Tony have kept busy. Nate hasn’t.”

Despite now considering Diaz behind Nurmagomedov and Ferguson in the pecking order, Kavanagh says a third between McGregor and Diaz could down before the turn of the year.

“I think Nate should get one in in the meantime,” Kavanagh said. “Him and Woodley, I hear there are rumours of that or him against a good lightweight. If the MMA gods smile, it would be a victory for [Diaz], Conor fights the winner of [Nurmagomedov/Ferguson] and then you’ve got this amazing super fight for new year’s eve.”

Watch the interview here: