It's official: Conor McGregor gets his wish, will rematch Nate Diaz at UFC 200

Every fighter remotely close to Conor McGregor in weight seems desperate to fight him. The legendary former middleweight champion Anderson Silva recently became the latest (and most ridiculous) to pitch a bout between himself and the Irish superstar when he said he wanted to test McGregor's skills.

The man who will get the gig, though, is one who wasn't necessarily looking for it.

Nate Diaz, who submitted McGregor in the main event of UFC 196, will face McGregor in the main event of UFC 200, which will be held July 9 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the UFC announced. The bout will, as it was at UFC 196, be contested at the welterweight limit of 170 pounds.

GIven that McGregor won't be defending the featherweight title, the UFC announced that ex-champion Jose Aldo will face Frankie Edgar in a rematch of a 2013 bout.

If ever there was a sign that it's about the business and not about the sport aspect of mixed martial arts, this announcement was it.

UFC 196 did massive numbers, and company president Dana White said without releasing the official figures that it has become the best-selling MMA bout in pay-per-view history. He said it has exceeded 1.5 million buys. To put that into perspective, only six boxing bouts in history have exceeded 1.5 million sales:

 

• Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao, 4.6 million

 

• Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather, 2.48 million

 

• Floyd Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez, 2.25 million

 

• Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson, 1.98 million

 

• Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield II, 1.98 million

 

• Mike Tyson-Evander Holyfield I, 1.59 million

 

Clearly, the McGregor-Diaz bout, which also featured a women's bantamweight title match between Holly Holm and Miesha Tate in the co-main event, was a massive event.

But the pairing puts a big dent in McGregor's plan to make history in the sport. Following his title-winning knockout of Aldo at UFC 194, McGregor said he wanted to face lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos. Importantly, though, McGregor said he wanted to retain the featherweight title and then defend both belts.

Shortly thereafter, the UFC booked McGregor-dos Anjos for the lightweight belt at UFC 196. But 11 days before the fight, dos Anjos announced he was pulling out because of a broken foot, and Diaz was brought in as a late replacement.

White agreed to allow the McGregor-dos Anjos bout in the first place because McGregor promised to defend both belts. But UFC 200 will mark the second bout in a row that McGregor won't be able to defend the featherweight title he won, which is why Aldo-Edgar II was announced as well on Wednesday.

McGregor's bid for history was so compelling, but it seems like a pipedream to believe that can ever happen under current circumstances. Sooner or later, McGregor is no longer going to be able to make the featherweight limit of 145 pounds, so in order to have an opportunity to hold two belts simultaneously, he'd seem to need to do it soon.

Fighter careers are notoriously short and in almost every circumstance, it's wisest to take the fight that will pay the most. Clearly, McGregor and the UFC believes that is a bout with Diaz, given that they're putting it on their biggest show.

But a McGregor featherweight title defense, against either Aldo or Edgar, wouldn't have been much less.

There were a lot of interesting matches that could be made for Diaz. White said in the aftermath of UFC 196 that a welterweight title fight with Robbie Lawler made sense. But Diaz has been brilliant on a promotional tour following the win over McGregor and that perhaps compelled the sides to make the rematch.

In addition to McGregor-Diaz II and Aldo-Edgar II, UFC 200 will include a heavyweight bout between Cain Velasquez and Travis Browne, a lightweight bout between Joe Lauzon and Diego Sanchez, and a welterweight match between Johny Hendricks and Kelvin Gastelum.