McGregor not committed to fight with dos Anjos after withdrawal for 'bruise on the foot'

UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor didn’t sound too enthused about fighting lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 200.

From McGregor’s point of view, dos Anjos (25-7 MMA, 14-5 UFC) had already signed on the line and might have lost his chance when he withdrew from UFC 196 with a broken foot.

“It’s hard to commit to dos Anjos again,” McGregor (19-2 MMA, 7-0 UFC) said at a hastily assembled press conference arranged after the lightweight champ’s injury withdrawal and subsequent welterweight pairing against Nate Diaz (18-10 MMA, 13-8 UFC). “The same with Jose (Aldo). He pulled, and it took him two (attempts) to build up the courage.

“Hopefully, maybe, it would take dos Anjos two (attempts) to build up the courage. But when you pull out with an injury like that, a bruise on the foot, there’s not much I can do to help you to bring you back into the mix. So it does change things a little bit, but we have to see how that one plays out.”

Prior to the injury, McGregor and his team indulged the prospect of winning three UFC titles by moving up to the welterweight division to challenge champ Robbie Lawler at UFC 200.

Now, McGregor will fight at 170 pounds, but no belt will be on the line when he fights Diaz at the March 5 pay-per-view headliner at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena.

McGregor mocked dos Anjos’ injury throughout the press conference, saying the issue could have been resolved with ice and ibuprofen. It was among the nicer jabs at the champ and Diaz during a sometimes raucous press conference filled with expletives.

To McGregor, the withdrawal was another in a long line of opponents who had volunteered to fight him only to withdraw as the event approached. He blasted Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar, claiming the ex-champs turned down the chance to fight him after dos Anjos’ withdrawal despite loudly calling for the opportunity beforehand.

“They all have sore vaginas lately, it’s crazy,” he said. “There’s something going on, I don’t know. Dos Anjos broke his foot and his vagina in the same damn day, in the same way as Edgar. I couldn’t believe the odds of that to happen.”

Reminded that Aldo was only recently cleared to train after suffering a 13-second knockout by his hand, McGregor slightly softened his stance.

“When a man is KO’d by punches…when a man fights me, they need to take 10 months to one year off. You can’t bounce back into a fight, and that’s no joke. You can’t take head trauma and bounce back in the gym and spar. These people think they can do that. (Chad) Mendes did that, and his chin will never recover after the fight. He jumped in too early (and was knocked out). So I understand that.

“I bounced Jose’s head off the canvas like a basketball. He needs to take one year to a one year-and-a-half off, and that’s just for his health. And then, after the fight is done, he’s putting out all these statements – ‘I’ll fight Conor any time, any where,’ his coach is saying, ‘We’re in camp in case dos Anjos pulls out’ – I’m like, it’s the wrong move, but OK. And then dos Anjos pulls out, and he’s gone.

“So I don’t know. But personally, he should even have put his name in the mix in the first place. You can’t rush into it. You take head trauma, you sit your ass back in the queue and rest, healthy.”

It was a refreshingly level-headed opinion couched in a series of vulgar insults. But whatever the circumstances that led him to Diaz, McGregor is moving forward with an eye on big, money-making fights.

The belts might not follow him just yet, but at this point, he claims, the weight classes doesn’t matter. There are opponents at featherweight, lightweight and even welterweight. Picking the division is secondary to its reward.

“The only weight I care about is the weight of my checks,” he said. “And they’re super heavyweight.”

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