Don’t Hold Your Breath For McGregor vs Diaz III, It Won’t Be Happening Soon

Of all the great moments from this past weekend’s epic slugfest between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz at UFC 202 (and lord, were there ever a few of those; Conor turning Nate’s lead thigh into a scout’s diagram of knots, Nate flipping the bird and having none of Conor’s gassed rope-a-dope tactics, Conor defending takedowns harder than an alt-right blogger, Conor’s almighty second wind, and Nate leaking more claret than a sinking wine barge), arguably the best moment of the entire thing came at the final horn when Nate helped Conor back to his feet.

After all the jaw-jacking, smack-talking, water-bottle throwing, pomp, circumstance and personal animosity the pair had shown in the lead-up to the fight, there was a brief moment after it ended where the pair embraced, bloody and exhausted, and seemed to revel in how much fun they’d both just had.
‘Course the personalities switched back on the second a live mic entered the fray. But that one moment where these two fierce rivals put aside everything to collectively acknowledge “fuck yeah, that ruled” was worth everything.
But if you’re keen to get the ‘Return of the Jedi‘ of this particular trilogy, you’re gonna have to be patient. It ain’t happening any time soon.
UFC head cheese Dana White confirmed that, whilst the feud between Diaz and McGregor is basically a license for his company to print money, the third instalment won’t be for a little while, as he told UFC reporter Megan Olivi:
“We’re definitely not doing this a third time right now. Um, I mean, I don’t think there’s anybody that doesn’t want to see this fight again, but um, Conor’s either gonna go defend his title or give his title up. Then we’ll figure out where we go from there. They’re both really, they’re, It’s weird, they’re both like, giddy. They’re both pumped about the fight, they said it was awesome. They had a blast, and uh, they’re sick individuals, those two.”
Conor’s next move would likely be to decide what he wants to do about that UFC Featherweight Championship he currently holds. All empirical evidence seems to suggest that he’s done cutting weight to get down to 145, and that McGregor’s future from here on out is in the Lightweight division.
Jose Aldo continues to push for a rematch with McGregor, after the Irish phenom sensationally dispatched him in 13 seconds last year. The former Featherweight (and current Interim) champ keeps pushing for a return bout with Conor at UFC 205 at Madison Square Garden. Diaz, on the other hand, has stated that he “ain’t doing shit” until he gets McGregor again for a third tilt.
But that final chapter, at least at this stage, seems like it’ll have to wait.
The right time, the right place.
Source: Uproxx.
Photo: Brandon Magnus, Zuffa LLC/Getty.

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