Manager: If Anthony Pettis beats Nate Diaz, Conor McGregor 'next on the horizon'

Anthony Pettis’ manager, Abraham Kawa, believes a fight with Conor McGregor is imminent. All Pettis has to do is take care of business against Nate Diaz.

The former lightweight champion Pettis is scheduled to take on Diaz in a welterweight bout on Aug. 17 in the UFC 241 co-main event.

McGregor last fought at UFC 229, losing to current 155-pound champion Khabib Nurmagomedov via fourth-round submission. McGregor has been chomping at the bit for a rematch with Nurmagomedov, but the UFC decided to go in a different direction, booking a title-unification bout vs. interim champ Dustin Poirier in September at UFC 242.

McGregor is yet to sign his next fight. But if Pettis beats Diaz, Kawa believes McGregor should be next for his client.

“Even Conor fighting Khabib, I don’t think that’s the fight,” Kawa told MMA Junkie on Tuesday. “I actually don’t want to see that fight right now. Maybe after a while, yes. But right now I think Conor vs. Anthony is the fight. I’m looking at it as (if) Anthony beats Nate, and I think Conor is next on the horizon.”

Pettis made an emphatic statement in his welterweight debut when he knocked out Stephen Thompson with a highlight-reel Superman punch in March. Prior to that, Thompson had never been finished in his combat sports career.

Now Pettis draws Diaz, who hasn’t competed since his unanimous-decision loss to McGregor back in August 2016. It took Pettis to bring Diaz back from his long layoff, and Kawa believes Pettis’ statement in his last fight is what motivated Diaz.

“We needed Anthony to do what he did to Thompson,” Kawa said. “If Anthony doesn’t do that to Thompson, I don’t think anyone would go, ‘This is the fight to make with Nate and Anthony.’ So, Anthony did his part.”

And he’s expecting the best version of Diaz.

“He has a following, he has a name, he’s one of the OG’s of the sport, and I take nothing away from Nate,” Kawa said. “To get Nate to get up in the morning and say that’s the dude I want to fight, I think we’re going to see fireworks.

“We’ve seen Anthony vs. ‘Cowboy’ (Donald Cerrone), and now we’ll see Anthony vs. Nate,” Kawa added. “They genuinely don’t like each other. They genuinely don’t see eye to eye, and they’re two guys that are going to come forward and throw. The better man is going to win, and I think if Anthony does what he’s supposed to do, he will win.

“I think next in line should be Conor. I don’t think there should be anyone else.”

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