Source confirms UFC looking at McGregor-Diaz II for July in Las Vegas

UFC president Dana White has long resisted having one of his champions trying to hold belts in two weight classes at the same time. He relented when featherweight champion Conor McGregor asked to be allowed to go after the lightweight belt.

McGregor vowed he’d defend both the lightweight and featherweight titles, if he defeated champion Rafael dos Anjos in their bout on March 5 in the main event of UFC 196.

Dos Anjos, though, broke his foot and had to pull out of UFC 196. Instead, McGregor fought, and was submitted by late replacement Nate Diaz in that show.

Now, the UFC appears to be headed in the direction of a McGregor-Diaz rematch for UFC 200 on July 9 at the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

A source confirmed to Yahoo Sports that the bout is being discussed, but has not been finalized. MMA Fighting first reported the possibility.

Though it’s not done, the fact it is being seriously discussed is the very reason that White has been reluctant to allow someone to try to hold two belts in the first place.

Former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar and former featherweight champion Jose Aldo are each hoping to face McGregor for the featherweight belt the next time out.

Both have good cases, though Edgar has the far stronger case.

Edgar has won five consecutive fights since July 6, 2013, when he defeated Charles Oliveira at UFC 162. Since, he’s stopped B.J. Penn, submitted Cub Swanson, decisioned Urijah Faber and knocked out Chad Mendes.

Prior to that five-fight winning streak, he lost three title fights in a row, all three of which he could have won. He lost back-to-back lightweight title fights in razor-thin decisions to Benson Henderson, both of which could have been scored either way. He also lost a very close featherweight title fight to Aldo at UFC 156.

Aldo is one of the greatest champions in UFC history, and until he was knocked out in 13 seconds by McGregor at UFC 194, he hadn’t lost in more than nine years.

The problem making a McGregor-Aldo rematch is that 2015 was almost entirely taken up by McGregor-Aldo. After McGregor stopped Dennis Siver in Boston with Aldo at Octagonside on Jan. 18, 2015, the UFC soon thereafter announced Aldo-McGregor for July 11 at UFC 189.

They then proceeded on an eight-country, five-city media tour to promote the bout.

Two weeks before the bout, though, Aldo pulled out with a rib injury, and Mendes took his spot. After McGregor knocked out Mendes, Aldo-McGregor was rescheduled for Dec. 12, which McGregor won with a perfect counter hook.

Edgar hasn’t had a shot at McGregor, he’s won five in a row and after he knocked Mendes out, White said at the post-fight news conference, “Nobody can deny Frankie any more. He looked amazing tonight and he’ll get whatever he wants.”

He didn’t get the shot at UFC 196, which was defensible because McGregor was attempting to make history in becoming the first fighter to hold two belts simultaneously in the UFC.

Diaz’s win over McGregor was a huge financial success, and UFC 196 was the highest-grossing fight in company history, as well as the top-selling pay-per-view.

There is no logical opponent for Diaz now, and McGregor badly wants the rematch to atone for his defeat.

McGregor has done much for the sport and for the company, and so he’s earned the right to get a bout he wants. But this time, there should be conditions.

If he does fight Diaz at UFC 200 as appears likely, he should give up the featherweight title, because the belt would at that point be dormant. The division would come to a standstill.

Edgar has a right to a title shot. So, too, does Aldo. When it would happen would be anyone’s guess.

Imagine if McGregor beat Diaz in a classic bout, which, given the way their match at UFC 196 went wouldn’t be out of the question. In that instance, wouldn’t Diaz have the right to demand a rubber match?

And if that happened, the featherweight contenders would be unfairly put on ice.

And even in the hypothetical situation of a McGregor win over Diaz, the soonest he could possibly defend his title would be in September, which would mean that either Edgar or Aldo would have been forced to sit on the sidelines for nine months.

But the worst scenario for all involved would be in the event that Diaz prevailed over McGregor again. At that point, McGregor would then have to look to defend his featherweight title coming off back-to-back losses.

Fighting is a business, and because of the risks involved, fighters should shoot for the biggest payday they can get.

But in this case, the interests of the sport outweigh the business aspects. It’s unfair to too many others to ice the title if McGregor is permitted to compete outside the division yet again. And while a McGregor-Diaz rematch might be slightly more interesting on pay-per-view to some than McGregor-Edgar or McGregor-Aldo II, neither one of those other bouts would suffer at the box office.

As White said in December, Edgar earned the title shot.

Here’s hoping he’s not left out in the cold yet again.