Sonic had $1.00 Chili Dogs today, and I had 3.
I started eating them at 12:30 pm, and finished them at 12:45 pm. It was the Antietam of dietary warfare; a spectacular display of guts and will overshadowed by the fact that simple foresight could have averted the brutality.
At 1:20 pm, I sat down for my lecture of death (4 hours of Medical Physiology 1) realizing I needed a distraction. While the image of me vaulting over my row of desks and Tokyo Drifting at top speed out of the room into the restroom down the hall may be a hit film waiting to happened, but I assure you it’s not healthy.
I write this opinion piece to distract myself. You will get four hours of MMA Opinion/Fact from a man who more or less inhaled 3 chili dogs so violently my roommate heard and checked the weather report for hurricanes.
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”
*Ahem*
Conor McGregor is a fantastic fighter and the UFC’s biggest draw. The former means that people, love him or hate him, want to see him matched up with the best fighters and the latter means that the UFC wants him to keep winning.
The ire produced by his blatantly protected rise through the UFC featherweight rankings was effectively dissipated by his brilliant counterpunch KO of pound-for-pound king Jose Aldo. And it was hard to say he was “ducking” Frankie Edgar when he was willing to take on Rafael Dos Anjos, a man who is showing potential of being the greatest in his weight class.
But the loss to Nate Diaz has really put the UFC in a tough spot. Let me first banish the idea that Conor’s loss was due to the change in weight class.
He had been preparing for a lightweight title fight until 11 days prior to the change, and weighed in at 168 lbs. He was in great fighting shape and simply didn’t have to dehydrate himself before stepping on the scale. Nate stepped off a boat in Mexico and weighed in 169 lbs. on fight day. Nate wasn’t a welterweight; he was so out of shape (a relative term, I know) that the mere act of training for 11 days dropped him below the weight limit. If he had a 2 week notice instead, I guarantee you we would have seen Nate closer to 165.
Conor was possibly the bigger man, and he still got worked over. Simple as that.
Now if the UFC wants to rebuild Conor’s aura of invincibility and make his multi-weight class title holding aspirations realistic, they have to get creative.
If educated fans thought Conor’s boasts about securing a welterweight title were ridiculous before his loss, they are rolling on the floor cackling like madmen now. Sure Conor wasn’t bulked for this fight, but are we really confident he can survive against the wrestler-happy welterweight division assuming he can actually take out Robbie Lawler?
But Conor cannot challenge Rafael Dos Anjos directly, and he’d need a marquee lightweight win before the UFC could justify leapfrogging him into a title fight. But the top 5 of the division is Eddie Alvarez, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Anthony Pettis, Tony Ferguson and of course Nate Diaz.
None of those seem appetizing. But even the featherweight division poses problems.
The safest route for the UFC would be McGregor vs. Aldo II, a fight that Conor will very likely win. But after that he will be under a tremendous amount of pressure to face Frankie Edgar. From a business standpoint, the UFC does not want Frankie anywhere near Conor. In fact, they won’t want any marketable featherweight near Frankie because he’s arguably the best in his class right now; I don’t think even Aldo could stop Frankie 2.0.
There’s been speculation from fighters and pundits alike that Conor cannot make the featherweight limit anymore and I believe it; he is gigantic for that weight class. But I suggest he cut off a toe if he has to because I’m not sure he can survive in the lightweight division (yet).
So sure, the very likely Nate Diaz match up makes sense. The UFC is rolling the dice and hoping that Conor, with better preparation, can beat Nate and “erase” his loss and open up the possibility of hopping the dangerous division straight to the title shot.
As to why this fight is allegedly taking place at welterweight when Nate wants the biggest fights to be saved for his brother? I have no clue.
The only reason I can think of is that if Conor loses to Nate again (which is even more likely at welterweight), the UFC can pay Nate enough to keep him out of the lightweight division so he can’t take the title and keep Conor in potential title shot purgatory.
But hey, all this is coming from the mouth of a man who has spent 4 hours learning about diagnosing cardiac irregularities whilst clenching so hard he appears 2 inches taller in the chair.
So, take that for what you will. Thanks you guys, you were there for me.
