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In a somewhat unexpected story this week, former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor has suggested that his return bout could come against reigning UFC welterweight king Kamaru Usman.
A fight between Conor McGregor and Kamaru Usman for the UFC welterweight title would certainly come out of left field and may drum up some interest, but should the promotion actually book it?
In truth, the fight makes very little sense and could lead to a number of unwanted ramifications for the UFC, meaning it’s a bout that the promotion should look to avoid.
Here are five reasons why Usman vs. McGregor is a terrible idea.
#5. A win over Conor McGregor wouldn’t do a lot for Kamaru Usman’s legacy
On the face of it, there are a number of reasons why a potential fight with Conor McGregor might intrigue current UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman.
McGregor remains the UFC’s biggest superstar and their biggest drawing card. If Usman were to be booked against him, he’d likely be in for the biggest pay-day of his career by some way, eclipsing the estimated $1.5m he made for his bout with Colby Covington last year.
Perhaps more importantly, Usman may well see ‘The Notorious’ as an easy win for him. That's based on the fact that the Irishman is not really a natural 170lber and has displayed major issues in defending against a powerful wrestler before.
However, would a win over McGregor do all that much for the legacy of Usman, who has already stated that his overall goal is to surpass the great Georges St-Pierre as the greatest welterweight in UFC history?
The truth is that it probably wouldn’t do a lot at all. Not only would it be embarrassing for Usman if he failed to deal with ‘The Notorious’ handily, but due to the popularity of the Irishman, ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ might even be viewed as a bully for dismantling a smaller foe.
So while it might earn a chunk of money for Usman, if he cares about his legacy more than his bank balance, this would be a fight for him to avoid.
#4. Kamaru Usman vs. Conor McGregor might restart the unwanted trend of “money fights”
From the UFC’s perspective, on the face of it, booking a fight between Kamaru Usman and Conor McGregor might make plenty of sense. After all, McGregor is the promotion’s biggest drawing card and so a fight with Usman would undoubtedly pop a huge number on pay-per-view.
However, booking such a fight may well lead to a number of unwanted ramifications for the promotion and its matchmaking team, namely the return of the “money fight” trend, which peaked right after McGregor’s bouts with Nate Diaz and Eddie Alvarez in 2016.
Neither of those fights made all that much sense, but drew huge numbers for the UFC. So when the promotion’s other fighters saw the kind of money that ‘The Notorious’ was making, they decided to attempt to follow suit.
Suddenly, UFC champions such as Tyron Woodley, Michael Bisping and later, Henry Cejudo and Max Holloway, appeared to lose interest in fighting deserving challengers and instead looked to call out either fighters from other weight divisions or aging legends who didn’t deserve a title shot.
While this trend did lead to a handful of entertaining fights, for the most part it was tiresome for the fans. That was particularly the case when the UFC would often refuse their champions, resulting in genuine title fights taking far longer to be set up.
Given that they seemingly want to keep costs, including fighter pay, as low as possible in the post-COVID-19 world, it’s unlikely that the UFC will want this trend returning, even if it sometimes leads to a big-drawing pay-per-view.
Therefore, if they wish to avoid the fighters jumping on the bandwagon, they should not book McGregor vs. Usman.
#3. The fight itself likely wouldn’t be all that entertaining
While a fight between Kamaru Usman and Conor McGregor for the UFC welterweight title would undoubtedly receive an epic build, the truth is that if it were to happen, the fight may not be all that entertaining to watch.
While his knockouts of opponents such as Gilbert Burns and Jorge Masvidal have long since buried the idea that Usman is a boring fighter, ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ would still be highly likely to attempt to impose his wrestling game in a fight with ‘The Notorious’.
Given the Irishman’s struggles against the takedowns of Khabib Nurmagomedov, it’s hard to imagine that he’d be able to stop the takedowns of an even bigger, stronger wrestler in Usman. Therefore, it’d be a surprise not to see McGregor grounded early.
If that were to happen, then the result of the fight would probably not be in doubt. it’d essentially be a question of whether Usman could finish the Irishman off before the final buzzer.
Nobody really likes to see a one-sided fight. On paper, at least, Usman vs. McGregor would be heavily one-sided and certainly wouldn’t be an entertaining fight to watch.
In turn, the UFC is in the business of booking entertaining fights, so therefore, it wouldn’t make sense for them to ink this one.
#2. Conor McGregor would be leapfrogging far more deserving contenders
While Conor McGregor might draw more money than Kamaru Usman’s other prospective challengers, fighters such as Leon Edwards and Khamzat Chimaev, it goes without saying that the Irishman certainly doesn’t deserve a shot at the UFC welterweight title right now.
Sure, if the UFC were to book the fight, it wouldn’t be the first time that McGregor would be leapfrogging more deserving challengers. He jumped over the likes of Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov to take his shot at the UFC lightweight title in 2016 despite never fighting in the division before.
However, in that case, ‘The Notorious’ was at least coming off his epic run to the UFC featherweight title and had defeated Nate Diaz in his previous bout.
Now, though, McGregor is just 1-3 in his last four bouts, hasn’t won a fight since his January 2020 win over Donald Cerrone and is coming off two straight losses to Dustin Poirier, both of which saw him stopped in violent fashion.
Therefore, it’d be absolutely impossible for the UFC to justify handing the Irishman a shot at ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’, particularly if they want to retain the pretense that they’re a promotion which books the best fights based on sporting merit.
Sure, Chimaev himself has stated that he’d understand if McGregor were to jump the queue due to his star power, but that isn’t the point. To give a fighter coming off two brutal losses a title shot would simply send an appalling message to the rest of the UFC roster.
#1. A fight with Kamaru Usman would be a horrible stylistic match for Conor McGregor
Conor McGregor is undoubtedly the UFC’s biggest ever star, particularly when it comes to drawing big money on pay-per-view. Of the UFC’s top-10 selling events of all time, McGregor was the headline act in eight of them.
However, at this stage in his career, it may well be fair to question just how much longer ‘The Notorious’ can remain a major draw on pay-per-view, particularly if his form in the octagon continues to slide like it has been doing in recent years.
Thanks to his two losses to Dustin Poirier in 2021, McGregor has now not won a fight in the octagon for over two years. His record since returning to the octagon following his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather stands at 1-3.
Essentially, if McGregor is to regain his luster and thus prevent his drawing power from being diminished, it’s hugely important that he wins his next fight.
However, if that next fight comes against Kamaru Usman, it’s highly likely that ‘The Notorious’ will lose, and lose badly. ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ is not only a devastatingly powerful fighter, he’s ruthless too, and will likely enjoy destroying the Irishman piece by piece.
Therefore, if McGregor wants to remain MMA’s biggest star and not descend into self-parody in the way that many of his predecessors did, he’d be better off forgetting all about challenging Usman and looking to match with a beatable opponent to regain some momentum first.
