Conor McGregor has been labelled as the potential reason why Kamaru Usman 's fight against Leon Edwards is yet to be announced.
UFC welterweight champion Usman is pencilled in to defend his belt against top contender Edwards at International Fight Week in July. The fight is yet to be officially announced by the promotion, likely due to Usman recently undergoing hand surgery.
McGregor told Mirror Fighting he plans to return at 170-pounds for his comeback fight later this year and has called out pound-for-pound No.1 Usman. MMA analyst Chael Sonnen thinks McGregor's call out of Usman could be the reason the champion's next fight hasn't been announced.
"I think it's going to be against the champion [Kamaru Usman]," Sonnen said of McGregor's next opponent. "Why is Leon [Edwards] vs Kamaru not booked? Is it because of Kamaru's hand and there's nothing else to see here? I don't know about that, I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist on that.
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"I think a little bit matters as to what McGregor does. If you bring McGregor back at 170-pounds, what the hell are you doing it for? I like the idea that Conor's going to go 170-pounds, I don't think he is a 155 pounder anymore.
"In August, what is Kamaru doing? What's the delay in announcing it? Is it going to be this summer? We get told that all the time, is it going to be later in the fall? Are we going to wait until winter 2022? Why does Kamaru have a fight and why is that date not booked?"
Usman laughed off McGregor's call out and vowed to " murder " the Irishman if they fought in the octagon. McGregor sees little threat in Usman's style, downplaying his striking abilities and criticising his finish rate in the promotion.
Sonnen thinks a fight with Usman makes sense for McGregor despite the former two-weight champion having lost his last two UFC bouts. The analyst struggles to see why the promotion would match McGregor up against anyone else at 170-pounds.
"There's no one else for Conor to fight at 170-pounds that would make a level of sense. If you don't think it makes sense that Conor, who was a 155-pounder, moves up to 170-pounds off of two losses and gets a title fight, fine," Sonnen added. It would still make more sense than moving Conor, your biggest draw, up to 170-pounds and giving him a top ten guy in the division to get him a step closer [to the title]."
