Conor McGregor’s Coach: Khabib Can Be Hit, May Not Come Back

With newly-crowned dual-weight champion Conor McGregor reportedly out until May as he welcomes his first child into the world, all of MMA will have a few months to speculate over just whom “The Notorious” will fight next.

Of course the usual suspects of longtime rival Nate Diaz and welterweight champion Tyron Woodley continue to appear in press clippings. That’s the fight that McGregor’s longtime striking coach Owen Roddy said he wants for his star pupil during an appearance on this week’s “The MMA Hour” (transcribed by MMA Mania):

“For me? Go up and go for three belts … maybe Woodley,” Roddy said. “But, [doing] Diaz again as well is another great one, because I think it’s what fans would want to see. They want to see something special again. [Doing] The Diaz fight again is special. The Woodley fight is special.”

But even with two guaranteed monumental bouts against Diaz and Woodley in the works, there is still the looming specter of undefeated Russian wrestler Khabib Nurmagomedov, who last seen brutally dismantling Michael Johnson at November 12’s UFC 205 – the card where McGregor halted Eddie Alvarez to make history.

“The Eagle,” his coach, his teammates, and even a retired MMA legend have been spouting off that McGregor is ducking Nurmagomedov, but Roddy gave his own perspective from a respectful angle of thoughtful fight analysis before questioning if the fight was big enough for “The Notorious”:

“You can’t really doubt Khabib at this stage now. “He’s a phenomenal grappler — a phenomenal wrestler — but I don’t know whether the excitement is there, you know? Obviously, for Conor, it’s about the pay-per-views … about the money. Whether Khabib will hit the pay-per-views for him, I don’t know, but he’s definitely there. He poses a different threat, so it would be good to try and work out the strikes that are going to land on him.

If the UFC’s biggest superstar is to finally sign on to fight Nurmagomedov, Roddy focused on the belief that aside from his world-class wrestling, “The Eagle” can be hit, as evident by his two most recent performances since returning from a long layoff due to injury:

“He can be hit as well, I will say that,” Roddy continued. “He got hit a bit [against Darrell Horcher] and the same again [against Michael Johnson]. I believe that if you give Conor a chance to land once, I don’t know whether people can come back from that. But, it would be definitely an interesting fight. They’re the three names I suppose: Khabib, Woodley — because it would be just insane — can you imagine the excitement of that? That would be crazy. And then, obviously, you can’t argue with the Nate fight again.”