Daniel Cormier believes there’s an even bigger fight for Conor McGregor’s return that would make for a perfect UFC 300 headliner.
McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) is expected to meet Michael Chandler in his comeback fight, but an official date has yet to be set. UFC 300 is starting to shape up nicely but is still without a main event. A rematch between welterweight champion Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad has been linked to UFC 300, but Cormier doesn’t see it as a big enough fight to headline the milestone event April 13 in Las Vegas.
“What I will say about UFC 300, it’s missing a big fight,” Cormier said on “DC & RC.” “That big fight that it’s missing has to have a backstory. That big fight has to have bad blood. That big fight has to bring the eyeballs. So, it can’t be Belal Muhammad and Leon Edwards because it just doesn’t have enough to it. While it’s a fantastic fight, it doesn’t have enough to it for it to be the main event.”
Cormier believes McGregor, the sport’s biggest star, should headline UFC 300. Nate Diaz posted an image of him face to face with McGregor in the octagon, hinting that he’s ready to settle their trilogy. With the pair splitting their two previous bouts, Cormier sees a rubber match as a fight that would generate the biggest audience for UFC 300.
“Regardless of who he would fight, the attraction comes with him,” Cormier said. “But if McGregor fights Diaz, that is what I believe draws the general fan in as much as anything that they could do in the UFC right now – just because of Nate Diaz and the intrigue, the way the first fight played out, the way the second fight played out. It is still two of the highest-grossing pay-per-views in UFC history.
“These two men, when you put them together, make a lot of money, and it is far enough out there to be considered an attraction. I also believe at this point in their careers, sure, Nate Diaz isn’t the guy that he was before. He’s not the guy that fought the most beautiful striking exhibit against Michael Johnson in Florida, where he went and (said), ‘Conor McGregor, you’re taking everything I worked for.’ He’s not that same guy, but neither is Conor McGregor.”
Diaz hasn’t competed in an MMA fight since his September 2022 win over Tony Ferguson, which was the last fight on his UFC contract. Even though he departed, UFC CEO Dana White has kept the door open for a possible future return. Since leaving the UFC, Diaz competed in a boxing match last September against Jake Paul, which he lost by unanimous decision.
McGregor hasn’t fought since July 2021, when he broke his leg during an injury TKO loss to Dustin Poirier in their trilogy.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 300.
