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411 Fact or Fiction: Is Conor McGregor Done With Money Fights?

October 4, 2017 | Posted by Lorenzo Vasquez

Welcome back to another edition of 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! I’m your host, Lorenzo Vasquez III, and it is my pleasure to bring you another round of Fact or Fiction MMA. Before we move on, thank you, for your votes and comments last week, it is appreciated and encouraged. Last week, the heavy hitting Mark Radulich strapped on the boots to challenge the undefeated, Dino Zee. They locked horns over topics like Claudia Gadelha’s future, Georges St-Pierre calling out Conor McGregor, and Ronda Rousey returning. Mark applied the pressure immediately and kept Dino on his toes landing some damaging blows. Dino, however, countered with short precise hits and picked up the victory. Congratulations Dino, and thank you both for your efforts and contribution.

This week, Jeffery Harris and Dan Plunkett will deliver the thunder and lightning as they lock horns over Max Holloway wanting a rematch with Conor McGregor, Mike Perry’s chances of becoming a title contender, Conor McGregor wanting to legitimize the UFC LW title, and much more! It that time of the week again. Grab your grub and get comfortable because it’s time for another round of, 411 Fact or Fiction MMA! Let’s get this show on the road…

TALE OF THE TAPE
RED CORNER
Jeffrey “The Vile One” Harris
Contributor, Various 411 Zones
2-6-4

VS

BLUE CORNER
“Handsome” Dan Plunkett
Contributor, 411 MMA Zone
3-8-1

Max Holloway is a bigger and better rematch for Conor McGregor than is a trilogy fight with Nate Diaz.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION Is it a better fight? Yes. But the reason I put “FICTION” here is because you said a “bigger and better” rematch. Would it be a bigger rematch against Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor? Probably not. Now, what fight would I support seeing more? I’d prefer Max Holloway vs. Conor McGregor II over Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz III. However, Conor McGregor is the lightweight champion, and he should be defending the title and mixing it up with that competition. That means facing the winner of Tony Ferguson vs. Kevin Lee.

Dan Plunkett: FICTION Is Holloway a better opponent for McGregor? I think there is a real case for that. It’s certainly a very interesting fight. However, you can’t dismiss that Diaz flat out beat McGregor once and came damn close to doing it again five months later. Diaz lost the rematch by the narrowest of margins, and despite his inactivity, he remains a tremendous test for McGregor.

As far as a bigger rematch, it would be laughable to claim that McGregor vs. Holloway II is a bigger fight than McGregor vs. Diaz III. The former is one of the weakest of McGregor’s options in terms of business, while the latter could be the biggest fight in MMA history. There is no comparison between the two in this sense.

The UFC is, indeed, using Eddie Alvarez as nothing more than a beatable opponent to build up Justin Gaethje.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION Eddie Alvarez might very well be beatable, but he’s still a former UFC lightweight champion. Plus, he was put in as the coach of The Ultimate Fighter. Justin Gaethje on paper is probably the favorite after his UFC debut where he beat up Michael Johnson. However, if Gaethje loses, he loses to an experienced veteran and former UFC champion who has some other big fights under his belt. I’d hardly consider it a tremendous loss if Gaethje loses here. It’s a fight, and lightweight is a competitive shark tank. Alvarez is the highest level opponent Gaethje has ever faced, and he’s still ranked No. 3 in the division. So no, it’s not a situation of nothing more than a beatable opponent to build up Gaethje. It’s more like testing Gaethje against a higher level and higher ranked opponent.

Dan Plunkett: FICTION It’s really hard for me to view Eddie Alvarez in that position. He is not exactly a fighter you can count on to lose. When he’s hurt and it looks like he’s about to get stopped, he can come roaring back and finish his opponent. I don’t mean that in the sense that he has a puncher’s chance like any other fighter, but rather that he’s won multiple fights after getting rocked or dropped. It’s kind of his thing. In other fights, he’s figured out ways to just get past tough opponents using tactics you wouldn’t have considered beforehand.

I think UFC made the fight because on paper it looks to be one of the best fights of the year. Sure, Alvarez has taken a lot of damage and his ability to withstand punishment likely isn’t what it was before. But he will hit Justin Gaethje, and he will hit him hard. Given all of that, it’s difficult to believe UFC would think of Alvarez as little more than a name to add to Gaethje’s resume.

Mike Perry has the technical skill and potential which allows us to confidently say he will one day be a title contender at welterweight.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION I think he’s an exciting fighter and a fan-friendly fighter, but I’m not quite ready to declare him a future lightweight title contender yet. He tends to get sloppy with his defense quite a bit. Let’s not forget, he did lose a fight last year to Alan Jouban, who is also a talented fighter. I look forward to Perry’s next fight, and I’d like to see him get tested against a tough opponent, but I just want to see a little more out of him before I’m ready to call him a contender.

Dan Plunkett: FICTION I don’t know that he has the technical skill quite yet, but he’s certainly improving and may well get there. It was less than a year ago that he lost to Alan Jouban pretty clearly. Hopefully, he gets there because the welterweight division will be a much better place with Platinum Mike Perry in the title mix.

SWITCH!

You’re finding it hard to believe Conor McGregor is wanting to legitimize the UFC lightweight title over money fights when at this moment he really wants a trilogy with Nate Diaz.

Dan Plunkett: FICTION Allow me to take an alternate approach here. Don’t let Dana White or Shannon Sharpe lead you to believe otherwise: Nate Diaz is a lightweight. This was no welterweight behemoth that McGregor battled twice in 2016, but rather a lightweight with an uncomfortable cut to 155-pounds that isn’t quite big enough to compete with top welterweights. This lightweight first gave McGregor more than he could handle and then gave him just about everything he could handle.

Diaz has proven he can beat the lightweight champion. He has also proven that he can take the lightweight champion’s best shots and return fire to put the champion in trouble. They are 1-1. Is Diaz not worthy of a title shot to complete this trilogy and decisively prove the better fighter?

The road to establishing a legitimate title reign unquestionably runs through fights against guys like Khabib Nurmagomedov, Tony Ferguson, Kevin Lee, and Justin Gaethje, but why can’t it start against a fighter who has already taken the champion to hell and back?

Jeffrey Harris: FACT If Conor McGregor really believes those words, then he should be fighting the winner of UFC 216’s main event as soon as possible. He shouldn’t be angling for any more super fights or trilogy fights with Nate Diaz. Quite frankly, pretty much any fight with Conor McGregor is automatically going to be a super-fight at this point, especially his first fight back in MMA after fighting Floyd Mayweather in boxing. If he wants to legitimize the lightweight title then he should be looking to defend the lightweight title instead of flirting with all of these boxing match-ups that are constantly getting rumored. Diaz getting a third fight with McGregor with the title on the line would be an absolute joke.

The UFC has taken a big risk by booking Henry Cejudo vs. Sergio Pettis as it potentially eliminates a fresh matchup in Pettis for Demetrious Johnson should “Mighty Mouse” beat Ray Borg.

Dan Plunkett: FACT This is an astute point. There are so few interesting matchups for Demetrious Johnson at flyweight because he is so damn good. One interesting matchup is Henry Cejudo, who did just lose to Johnson decisively last year, but he continues to improve and show great promise. Sergio Pettis is on his way to becoming another interesting matchup for Johnson, although he is likely not quite ready to give Johnson a real challenge. This fight either eliminates Pettis from title contention, which takes interest out of his rise or gets him a title shot a bit too quickly (which was the situation with Cejudo last year) while putting Cejudo on the back-burner. I think keeping Cejudo and Pettis separate is a better move because it keeps two potentially interesting challengers in contention and waiting for the right moment to challenge Johnson.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION I was the one advocating for Sergio Pettis or the winner of Pettis vs. Moreno to get the next shot at Demetrious Johnson instead of Ray Borg, and we all saw how that turned out, didn’t we? Regardless, you can’t have both guys waiting around forever. Pettis is a good fighter and a solid record, but he’s lacking that signature elite win to truly put him up as a top contender. A win over Henry Cejudo could certainly do that for him. Cejudo finally has momentum again after a stunning first-round knockout win over Wilson Reis. Plus, Demetrious Johnson might not even stick around in the division for long provided he has a successful title defense at UFC 216 and breaks the record. He might look for bigger name match-ups after 11 title defenses. But, let’s wait and see how things play out. If Cejudo does a great job against Pettis, that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for the division either. Cejudo is a solid fighter and he’s the only active Olympic gold medalist on the UFC roster.

Michael Bisping vs. Daniel Cormier is a ridiculous idea but in this day in age it’s not hard to imagine it happening if Bisping gets by Georges St-Pierre.

Dan Plunkett: FICTION It’s not a big enough fight to make it worth exploring for the UFC. Which active champions has UFC allowed to change weight classes for an immediate title shot? First, there was BJ Penn, who moved up for a big fight and much-discussed rematch. Last year, there was Conor McGregor, the biggest attraction in company history. That’s it. There were select other cases where they would have allowed it if the fighter had wanted it or things had played out differently, but by and large, the UFC dislikes disrupting its divisions with the champion jumping around weight classes. They’ll do it for the right fighter and if there is money in the move, but in this case, Cormier vs. Bisping is only a marginally bigger fight than Cormier vs. Gustafsson II. It’s not worth it for them to go out of their way and disrupt two divisions for a 400,000 PPV buy-fight.

Jeffrey Harris: FICTION There’s no way that fight is happening. It makes no sense at all. Michael Bisping got his silly little revenge fight against Dan Henderson. Now he’s getting his super-fight against Georges St-Pierre. That’s it. If he continues fighting after the GSP fight, no more of this nonsense. He has to face the likes of Robert Whittaker and then other opponents such as the other top contenders floating around the top of the middleweight division such as Luke Rockhold, Chris Weidman, Yoel Romero, etc. I won’t even entertain the idea and I will never accept the idea of Cormier vs. Bisping. It’s the height of absurdity. Not to mention, as thin as light heavyweight is, Cormier will have to do what he can to pick up the pieces of that division after Jon Jones has nearly ruined it.

So who won? Did Jeffrey slam “Handsome” Dan? Did Dan finish and silence The Vile One? You’ve got until midnight eastern on Saturday to vote, so make sure you make your voice heard!

And that’s it for today but, as always, we’ll be back next week with another contest! And please, be sure to vote!

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