March 18--The first version of Conor McGregor-Nate Diaz revealed the Irish fighter's challenges of carrying extra weight, with McGregor's expected answer to be a drop back down to 145 pounds, where he stands as Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight champion.
Yet, the website MMA Fighting reported Friday that the UFC is "close to finalizing" a deal to have McGregor and Diaz stage another 170-pound welterweight rematch as the main event of UFC 200 on July 9 at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Multiple UFC officials did not respond to Times requests Friday morning to comment on the report, and one tempered the report by describing McGregor-Diaz as "a possibility in discussions."
While the matchup seems puzzling given McGregor's difficulty in the first fight, the UFC 196 card was a financial success, generating live-gate sales in excess of $8 million at MGM Grand, and more than 1 million pay-per-view buys.
McGregor suffered his first loss in eight UFC fights on March 5 after absorbing hard second-round punches and fatiguing so badly that he opted to try to grapple with Stockton's Diaz, a jiujitsu specialist who submitted McGregor by rear naked chokehold late in the round.
McGregor indicated afterward that he foresaw a return to the featherweight class after his original March 5 opponent, lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos, withdrew less than two weeks before the fight with a foot injury. Diaz has previously fought as a lightweight.
Top featherweight contenders Frankie Edgar, a former UFC lightweight champion, and former featherweight champion Jose Aldo of Brazil lobbied for McGregor. Edgar was aware of the report and declined to comment to The Times through a representative.
SIGNED HOMECOMING: Former middleweight champion Anderson Silva, who lost a disputed decision to England's Michael Bisping last month in London, will meet Uriah Hall at the Arena da Baixada in Silva's hometown, Curitiba, Brazil.
The May 14 UFC 198 card will be headlined by Brazil's Huntington Beach-trained Fabricio Werdum defending his heavyweight belt against heavy hitter Stipe Miocic of Cleveland.
A UFC official said the Silva-Hall deal was signed Thursday and added that, in addition to former light-heavyweight champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua being on the card, the organization is exploring the possibility of putting 145-pound female Cris "Cyborg" Justino on the card.
"Cyborg" currently fights for the Invicta fight organization, but is under contract with the UFC, which doesn't offer a women's division above bantamweight (135 pounds).
