Owen Roddy, head striking coach to Conor McGregor, wants to see the Irishman return to the Octagon and face Nate Diaz for a third time in his next outing.
The former European featherweight standout sees the upcoming interim lightweight title fight between Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee as somewhat of a determining factor for McGregor’s UFC return, but the SBG Charlestown coach believes that the fans want to see him trade leather with Diaz for a third time.
“I would probably like to see Diaz 3, but obviously you’ve got (Tony) Ferguson and (Kevin) Lee fighting for the interim belt,” he told Ariel Helwani on the latest edition of The MMA Hour. “If he’s to fight MMA again, it will probably have to be the winner of (Ferguson versus Lee).
“In my opinion, the reason I say Diaz is because those fights are so exciting. The build up is so exciting; the back and forth…there is nothing like it. It’s just a mad scene.
“The two fights against Diaz were probably the most exciting camps that I’ve been part of. To do that again would be unbelievable. As I see it, the fans would like that over everything else.”
Although Roddy wants to see the Diaz trilogy fight, he says he still doesn’t know whether McGregor’s next fight will be in the Octagon or the boxing ring.
“If I was to pick MMA, I would definitely like to see the Diaz fight. Boxing, who knows?” he pondered.
“I saw today that there was talk about him fighting in Australia against the lad that beat (Manny) Pacquiao, Jeff Horn. Who knows? It’s an unbelievable spectacle whatever Conor does, so I don’t know.
“I like the idea of the Diaz fight, but I’m sure if it doesn’t happen next, I’m sure it’s down the line.”
Asked if he would like to see McGregor fight Paulie Malignaggi, the Dubliner claimed that he had already watched the two fight twice and implied that the UFC champion had it his way.
“I saw that already…I saw that twice,” he said, laughing. “It was easy work.”
Roddy is also uncertain whether “The Notorious” will compete again before the end of 2017.
“I’d like to think so, but who knows? I can speak when I’m told, ‘we’re about to sign on this’, or ‘we’re about to sign on that’, so until I see that I can’t really comment.
“For me, I’d like to see him fighting as often as he likes to fight because it’s just an unbelievable adventure. I’m happy to go wherever he wants to go and I’m to do whatever he wants to do. If he wants to take time off he takes time off, if he wants to go again we’ll go again.
“I’ve always been behind Conor in whatever decisions he makes, and I’ll be behind him for the next one, most definitely.”
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