Despite the fact that McGregor hasn't had a win in years and is probably ranked a lot higher than he should be because of his notoriety, he still makes the news any time there is any talk of who he might face next. Lately, the focus has shifted to his return fight being against a guy who is on a 10-fight winning streak and if they do match these two up I think Islam will be on an 11-fight win streak for one simple reason.
It's easy for me to understand why Islam would want to face Conor and that reason is money. If you fight Conor, you make a ton of money.... at least for now. For me, I don't understand why McGregor is still a big draw since he hasn't been a force in the sport for quite some time. I'll say it again as I have said many times before: Conor hasn't been the same since he took a lot of time away from MMA in order to face Floyd Mayweather in boxing. Most of the experts agree that everything about his fight style has suffered as a result. Does Conor care? Probably not seeing as how it is estimated that he made $100 million in that one fight vs Mayweather.
When Conor returns I think it would be a very bad idea for him to face Makhachev because of one very important reason: Conor's ground game is not good and this is exactly where Islam immediately tries to put all of his opponents as early as possible. He is very good at it to the point where I find most of his fights, despite the fact that they are mostly wins, to be very boring.
He is patient. He tends to box a bit with his opponents luring them into a close game or to get them involved in a kick game and then he grapples like a spider monkey and will slowly but surely move into a submission position. Sometimes he turns this into ground and pound but for the most part, he is a submission artist which I realize is a major part of the sport but one that I find to be boring.
He has 3 wins by KO and 10 wins by submission. I am not discounting a submission victory because they are just as much of a win as a walk-away lights-out overhand right, I just don't find it as entertaining as stand-up game. That is just a personal preference.
I realize that UFC is looking for a way to quickly put Conor back into the limelight upon his return in 2022, or so he hopes, but putting McGregor against a guy who excels at what is largely-considered the weakest part of Conor's game would be a very quick way to show McGregor the exit and financially speaking from UFC's perspective, I think it would be a very bad choice for them to make.
When Islam was asked about a potential match against the former 2-division champion he had this to say
"Honestly, I don't remember when this guy beat someone, I'm going to smash him like easy. Bobby Green is going to be harder for me than for him."
If Islam takes Conor to the ground, which of course will be his objective to start with, it is game over.
Dana is interested in keeping Conor in the headlines as long as possible so I am thinking that this talk of these two facing is going to disappear pretty quickly. For the sake of having entertaining fights, I really hope that this one does go away.
We also need to factor in that Conor is over-ranked at 9th place and that Islam is number 4 and probably should be shooting for a title shot instead, then I don't think that the UFC should really let this fight happen. With a 10 win streak, Makhachev should have his eyes on the belt, not on a big-mouthed washed up has been with only 1 submission win in his entire career.
But then again, money drives the motivations in a lot of people's lives and even though he doesn't deserve it anymore in my mind, Conor is still the biggest draw in the sport.