That’s a risk McGregor took in 2016, when he went from featherweight to welterweight for a pair of memorable bouts with Nate Diaz. It was Diaz who sparked the feud, calling McGregor out after a win over Michael Johnson, and the unlikely pairing came to fruition when then-lightweight champion Rafael does Anjos pulled out of a defense against McGregor at UFC 196 due to injury and Diaz took his place.
On Friday, McGregor responded to a fan asking if Topuria would ever fight under the same circumstances, writing, “Never, he has the balls of a kitten.”
McGregor suffered his first UFC loss to Diaz at UFC 196, losing via a shocking second-round submission, but he rebounded with a majority decision win in their rematch at UFC 202. The feud did massive box office numbers for the promotion and served to elevate the profiles of both fighters to another level of mainstream notoriety.
In more recent years, McGregor’s reputation has plummeted with just four fights and one win since 2018, in addition to various outside-of-the-cage embarrassments. The 36-year-old was recently found liable for sexual assault in a civil case tied to a December 2018 incident.
Topuria is coming off a banner year where he claimed the featherweight title with a stunning knockout of Alexander Volkanovski in February and followed that up with a knockout of another legend in Max Holloway. With those wins, the undefeated Topuria became the first fighter to defeat Volkanovski in a 145-pound bout and then the first fighter to finish Holloway via strikes.