John Kavanagh doesn’t think it would be right if Conor McGregor fights Nate Diaz before UFC 223 winner

If Nate Diaz had been more active, he could have possibly laid claim to the next Red Panty night.

Conor McGregor has fought twice since his avenging his loss to Nate Diaz. The Stockton native, on the other hand, hasn't been seen inside the Octagon (or boxing ring) since that fateful night in Las Vegas. Diaz has indicated that he would like to make a return in summer 2018, but fans seem to be in agreement that it wouldn't make sense to complete the trilogy against 'The Notorious' right away. SBG head coach John Kavanagh is inclined to agree with them, as he told TheMacLife.com. Although he sounds like he wants to see that fight happen down the road.

"Definitely for the first six months, I thought everyone would have seen the same as me. There's just a beautiful relationship between Conor and Nate, there's just a great back-and-forth with them outside the cage and inside the cage. It's just a lovely fight. The five-round rematch is still one of my favourite fights."

https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/958070477225906177 Initially, Kavanagh was all for booking McGregor vs Diaz III as soon as possible. However, he began to change his mind once it became clear that Diaz wasn't in any rush to make a return.

"You could see it amongst the fans, who I've always said and I still do believe, are the most important factor because they pay for the PPVs. That's what they want to see. And it was clearly becoming they wanted to see either Khabib or Tony in there rather than Nate - probably for the same reason that Nate didn't keep busy."

UFC 223 features statistically the best lightweight title fight in UFC history. Never before have two fighters riding win-streaks as long as that of Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov competed for the 155 lb strap. Nurmagomedov is undefeated in 25 professional bouts while 'El Cucuy' had to set a divisional record of 10 consecutive wins to earn the interim strap. https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/961937476947447809 Although Kavanagh has doubts over whether Ferguson vs Nurmagomedov will happen at the fourth time of asking, he feels the winner of that fight should be ahead of Diaz in the Red Panty Night queue. He thinks Diaz needs to get another fight in before fighting McGregor again.

"I don't think it would be quite right for that to happen before the winner of Nate-Tony because Conor, Nate and Tony have all kept busy. Nate hasn't. So I think Nate should get one in, in the meantime. Him and Woodley, I hear there's rumours of that. Or him against a good lightweight. If the MMA Gods smile, it would be a victory for him - Conor fight the winner of them and you've got this amazing superfight for... New Year's Eve (laughs)."

It's a pretty picture, but the MMA Gods can be cruel. They haven't been doing an awful lot of smiling lately. Sourpusses.