‘Nothing Going On’ With McGregor Vs. Diaz 3

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With the UFC back up and running, it didn’t take long for speculation to run rampant on who Conor McGregor will fight next. The Irish UFC star was said to be watching UFC 249 closely to assess how safe the event looked, an important consideration given McGregor has spent the past five weeks promoting proper quarantine procedures in his country and making big donations of PPE to Irish hospitals.

June or July had been floated as a possible return date for “The Notorious,” and eagle eyed MMA fans thought they’d caught a hint of his next opponent in the comments section of a ESPN Instagram post.

The post featured a tweet of McGregor’s wishing all the best for UFC 249 fighters and staff, especially Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza who was removed from the card last minute after testing positive for COVID-19. In the comments, Nate pops up to throw out a “Shut ur bitchass up” diss. “Shut your eye lid and sign the contract,” McGregor replied.

So is there really a contract floating out there for McGregor vs. Diaz 3? Not according to UFC president Dana White, who chalks the whole thing up to standard trash talking.

“No,” White said when asked if there was anything we should know about a fight between the two. “Um … I mean, they don’t like each other. But there’s nothing going on.”

“Conor wants to fight. I don’t even know if Nate wants to fight. I think they’re just talking s**t to each other.”

A third fight against Nate makes a certain amount of sense now that Justin Gaethje has beaten Tony Ferguson and is now next in line to face lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, possibly as soon as July. And if Nate is who Conor McGregor really wants, there’s no doubt he can call his shot and get that fight happening. But it seems like Nate has taken himself out of the UFC’s rotation again after losing his last fight to Jorge Masvidal for the BMF belt back in November of 2019. So we wouldn’t get too excited for a rubber match between the two just yet.