Conor McGregor’s striking coach says Khabib Nurmagomedov would be an interesting fight
Shortly after Conor McGregor defeated Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205, he announced that he will be taking a bit of a break from fighting. With the layoff, having a baby on the way, and even demanding for a stake in the company, everything seems up in the air at this point.
Naturally, the people have been asking about what’s next for Conor, and while the final decision rests with the dual-champion, his coaches have started to weigh in on the topic. Striking coach Owen Roddy appeared at The MMA Hour and he was asked who he would like McGregor to fight next.
"Maybe Woodley?" Roddy replied. "For me, go up and go for three belts, maybe Woodley.
“But Diaz again as well is another great one, because I think it's what fans would want to see. They want to see something special again. The Diaz fight again is special. The Woodley fight is special."
When asked about Khabib Nurmagomedov, Roddy was quick to praise his skills but seems to have some reservations about it happening. He thinks McGregor goes for the biggest money fight available, and he’s not sure if that’s against the undefeated wrestler.
"You can't really doubt Khabib at this stage now," he said. "He's a phenomenal grappler, a phenomenal wrestler, but I don't know whether the excitement is there. Obviously, for Conor it's about the pay-per-views, about the money. Whether Khabib will hit the pay-per-views for him, I don't know, but he's definitely there. And he poses a different threat, so it would be good to try and work out the strikes that are going to land on him.
"He can be hit as well, I will say that. He got hit a bit (against Horcher) and the same again (with Johnson),” he said. “I believe that if you give Conor a chance to land once, I don't know whether people can come back from that. But it would be definitely an interesting fight. They're the three names I suppose: Khabib, Woodley — because it would be just insane. Can you imagine the excitement of that? That would be crazy — and then obviously you can't argue with the Nate fight again.”
In the end, the final call as always resides on McGregor, and Roddy says his camp has no clue on what he’s going to decide next.
"Who knows? I always say after a fight, I never know what's going to happen, but that's part of the excitement,” he said. “Conor could just say, ‘yeah, I'm going to fight a middleweight.' And he could do it, because everything he says he's going to do, he does. He backs it up."
