Kenny Florian thinks Conor McGregor has a very good reason for moving up to welterweight.
Nate Diaz handed the Notorious his first loss in the promotion in one of the biggest PPV events in UFC history, so the reports that a rematch was being targeted for UFC 200 didn’t come as a massive surprise to anyone. However, the rumours that it would be at welterweight again did leave some people scratching their heads.
The only reason why their original fight was at 170 was because Diaz came in at such late notice that McGregor famously said he wanted him to “get comfortable” for the weight cut. However, with a full camp behind both fighters, one would suspect that the two natural lightweights would prefer to slug it out at 155 for the sequel.
We argued that McGregor seeking the bout at 170 was to ensure the circumstances would be the same as the first fight, so that there could be no excuses if he were to defeat Diaz the second time around. However, Kenny Florian thinks there might be another reason.
The former UFC welterweight contender was discussing the return of arguably the greatest fighter to ever grace an Octagon, Georges St-Pierre, on the latest Fighter and the Kid podcast with Brendan Schaub. Florian has a theory that McGregor fighting at 170 could indicate that he’s looking to welcome GSP back to the UFC, and break all the PPV records in the process.
“It could be at 170, it’s probably going to be non-title fights that he’s interested in. I think something like that (a fight with Anderson Silva).”
“That’s what I think was supposed to happen (McGregor vs GSP). That would have been over 2 million PPV buys. It would have been the biggest UFC fight of all time. Maybe that’s why Conor wants to fight at 170 against Nate. Maybe that’s the fight he wants.”
Florian added that he expects GSP to return to the Octagon this year, but he believes Rush won’t be fighting at the landmark UFC 200 event in July.
“He’s coming back this year. End of this year. Not for UFC 200, but I think after that, maybe even for the New York card. Who knows? But I think for sure he’s going to be fighting.”
