Longtime UFC commentator Joe Rogan has called the majority of UFC Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor’s bouts in the Octagon.
When it comes to who the Irishman fights next, the longtime UFC employee believes that UFC Interim Lightweight Champion in Tony Ferguson is a legit threat.
“Conor made that post to Tony,” Rogan said on The Joe Rogan Experience. “He made an Instagram post. Grand Theft Auto with him holding a gun, driving a boat. Conor’s smart. He realizes that Tony’s an unusual, eccentric character. Conor’s an unusual, eccentric character, Tony’s an unusual, eccentric character too and Tony has the longest win streak in the UFC’s 155-pound division. He’s the interim champion and he’s the logical fight. He’s a bad motherf**ker, no doubt, and a legitimate champion. Conor sells like f**king crazy and Conor versus Tony sells because Tony’s a legit threat. Conor versus a legit threat sells. Conor fighting someone sells but Conor versus a legit threat is where it gets interesting.”
McGregor and Ferguson both recently exchanged some Grand Theft Auto inspired social media posts to hype a potential bout.
Rogan also believes that more people know who Nate Diaz is when compared to Ferguson and that could play into who McGregor battles next.
“The whole world doesn’t know Tony but the MMA world knows Tony, for sure. But the regular people are the people you really need to get ahold of to buy pay-per-views. [Nate] is the money [fight]. [But] Nate made four million bucks over two fights and he don’t give a f**k. He’s like, ‘Pay Me.’ He beat Conor and in the second fight he arguably had a draw with Conor. He lost a decision based on a couple people’s opinion. Public opinion means a lot and if you went online and asked people who you think won that fight, I bet you would get very close to 50/50 Nate versus Conor. Those guys are rivals man and Nate choked him the f**k out in the first fight. That’s always gonna be there. The big money would be the Nate Diaz fight even if Nate beat him in the second fight. You think you can go to the gas station right now and go, ‘Hey man, who’s Tony Ferguson?’ If you go to the average person and ask them who Nate Diaz is, way more people are gonna know who he is than Tony,” says Rogan.
Diaz and McGregor have fought twice before, with Diaz winning at UFC 196 and McGregor getting the win at UFC 202.
