On Friday, we relayed the news coming from MMAFighting.com's Ariel Helwani that Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz were set for a rematch at UFC 200, and there was a mixed reaction both in our offices and amongst our readers on social media.
While we were happy enough to see the rematch, especially as the first fight was seriously entertaining, we were puzzled by the report which said the fight would again take place at 170 lbs.
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Why would that happen? Surely 155 lbs would have worked for everyone? Hopefully, it's not because Conor just wants to prove a point that he can knock Diaz out at 170 lbs, right? RIGHT?!
According to Ariel Helwani... Wrong. Speaking on Monday's episode of 'The MMA Hour', Helwani elaborated on his initial reports:
An interesting thing has happened since I put out this report. Of course, a lot of other media sources confirmed it and that's all well and good, and they did it right and credited, I have no beefs, but, a lot of what was reported was incorrect.
By the time that news came out a lot of people said 'Well, they're working on it, but there are no contracts.' I can assure you that the contracts had already been issued. Not signed, but anyone who told you that there were no contracts issued thus making it less of a real thing, that was inaccurate.
Make no mistake about it, the reason this fight is happening at 170 lbs is because, to be frank, Conor McGregor is a bit of a wildman. He is obsessed with the idea that he lost to Nate Diaz at 170 lbs, he feels like he should have won, and he wants the same circumstances. He wants to do it again, and prove that he is the better man.
That is not what we wanted to hear.
155 lbs makes so much more sense, but then again, can we really be that surprised?
This is who Conor McGregor is. In his mind there is no other fighter that can match him, so he wants the chance to immediately correct what he feels was a one-off. You can't have the bravado that Conor has and then move on from a loss, taking it on the chin.
We had hoped, however, that someone in his camp would advise him that jumping straight back into a situation that he badly struggled in may not be the best idea. Now, that is not to say that Conor can't win at UFC 200. He now knows exactly what he is getting in to, but we just wanted to see him fight Frankie Edgar first.
Either way, it looks as though Frankie, like the rest of us, will have to wait for that one.
