MMA veteran Matt Brown says Conor McGregor still has more potential, and his skills will be better appreciated at the BKFC rather than boxing or UFC.
Irishman Conor McGregor has had a lot of controversies surrounding him for the past couple of months that have inadvertently halted his return to the octagon, but the fighter revealed he may be making an appearance in the rung to face Logan Paul. The former champion, a part-time owner of BKFC, has teased about competing in the cage but has never made any appearance. The fighter has attended many events and press conferences is yet to step into the cage. However, all this is about to change as he faced off against Jeremy Stephens at BKFC 5 after he defeated Eddie Alvarez and said he would throw down his gloves and step into the cage to battle Stephens.
“I would love to see him do it,” Matt Brown said about McGregor competing in bare-knuckle on the latest episode of The Fighter vs The Writer. “I think it would be amazing. Even though it’s probably not going to happen, I would love to see it.
“Him and Jeremy Stephens, I think there would be a lot of great hype for that, and I think it would be a good fight, too. I think it would be a really interesting fight, especially in a bare-knuckle style.”
The fight might take some time as McGregor is still under an exclusive contract with UFC and has two more fights left. MMA veteran Matt Brown believes UFC would probably not allow one of their biggest star to compete at the BKFC, but Brown believes this is a better opportunity for Mcgregor than returning to the UFC.
“I think that’s a no-brainer. That’s by far the most exciting Conor McGregor fight out there right now,” Brown argued. “Does that happen? I guess it’s a little bit unlikely but maybe the UFC gets behind it. He did the boxing match with Floyd Mayweather. Maybe [the UFC] gets behind it. I think Conor would love to do it primarily for the reason you don’t have to get in the same shape, right? You’ve only got to throw hands, and it’s five, two-minute rounds. He would love that. The conditioning is completely different.
“Stylistically, I don’t think he has a terrible style for bare-knuckle. It would be interesting. You don’t really know until they get in there. Like I would have never thought Ben Rothwell had a great style for bare-knuckle, Jeremy Stephens obviously has a great style for bare-knuckle, but he was one of those guys I would be concerned he would break his hands. He throws for the fences every time, and I’m like, dude, you are definitely going to break your hands in bare-knuckle.”
McGregor has a longstanding feud with Stephens that dates back to an infamous interaction at a UFC press conference in 2016. He has also shown interest in facing Mike Perry, who has earned the title of “King of Violence” since first arriving in BKFC.
Perry has become one of the most marketable fighters on the planet mostly due to his fights in BKFC where he’s crossed off five straight wins, including finishes over former UFC champions like Alvarez and Luke Rockhold.
As much as Brown appreciates McGregor sharing the ring with Stephens in a bare-knuckle fight, he knows the buildup around a potential showdown against Perry might be the most promotable fight in all combat sports.
“F*ck the fight, that’s the best f*cking media tour in history!” Brown said about McGregor vs. Perry. “That’s easily the best media tour you could ask for! Even if they don’t fight. If they just say they’re going to fight and do a media tour. Who cares if they fight? That’s the greatest press conference I could possibly imagine. You know the answer to that. It’s going to be Mike Perry all day,” Brown said. “Again, if we do a media tour with all three of those, which one do you want to see the most? Logan Paul would be fun, too. It would probably just get stupid, and we’d be like that was cheesy, you made this shit up, you scripted this.
“But him and Mike Perry, they don’t need to script anything. They don’t need to come up with [anything] crazy. They’re the craziest motherf*ckers out there already.”
“We’ve seen him fight in MMA,” Brown said. “We’ve seen it. It’s a story that’s been written. We’ve seen the end of his career in MMA as we know it. We haven’t seen him in bare-knuckle.”
For now, McGregor still has sexual assault charges against him and has been in and out of court for months. All eyes are on him to see if he can turn things around for himself and clear his name, but until then, the fighter’s return to the cage remains unknown.
