Conor McGregor Just Challenged Tenshin Nasukawa To A Fight On Twitter
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Conor McGregor wants to go to Japan to fight against Tenshin Nasukawa in the early part of 2019, if his Twitter account is to be believed.
Nasukawa was recently defeated by Floyd Mayweather in an exhibition match but is only young and would still represent an intriguing challenge for the 'Notorious' Irishman.
In the early hours of Monday morning, McGregor tweeted:
I wish to go to Tokyo to face Tenshin Nasukawa in a Mixed Martial Arts exhibition bout.
Before this summer.
Please arrange this, this instant.
Yours sincerely
The champ champ. @ufc @ParadigmSM
- Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) January 7, 2019
As you can see, McGregor is obviously quite keen on the bout, but could it ever happen?
After a lot of hype and - let's face it - morbid curiosity, the Mayweather/Nasukawa fight was something of an anti-climax.
Mayweather, coming into the fight out of retirement, having last fought and beaten McGregor in 2017, knocked out his 20-year-old Japanese opponent in less than two minutes.
Nasukawa, despite being one of the most feared kickboxers in the world, looked badly out of his depth against such a wily operator in the boxing ring.
As McGregor found out to his detriment, choosing one of the world's greatest ever boxers for your first professional bout is maybe not the best thing to do. I mean, ease yourselves in, guys.
That being said, Nasukawa reportedly earned $9m for a fight that was scheduled to last only three rounds. Most of us would get in the ring with anyone for that kind of payday.
A bout between McGregor and Nasukawa might actually be a bit more interesting. McGregor is known for his striking and his kicking, whereas Nasukawa is an out-and-out kickboxer. Everyone would be allowed to do what they're best at.
But, as there always is when Conor McGregor is concerned, there is a catch.
Conor isn't against the idea of using social media to call out his next opponents - Hell, he's not above using any tactic to get at his opponents (see below) - but this one feels a bit different.
The way the tweet reads suggests that he might be taking the piss just a tiny bit. The tweet also went out at around three in the morning, so perhaps the 'Champ Champ' was just having a bit of fun and sampling a tiny bit of his Proper No. Twelve whiskey?
Either way, if it is a legit concern, UFC would have to sanction him travelling to fight for another promotion, or RIZIN - the kickboxing promotion that Nasukawa fights for - would have to do the same.
Most MMA fans would rather McGregor focused on challenging someone from within the UFC (rematch with Khabib, anyone?) instead of messing around with much smaller, much younger, kickboxers from halfway across the world.
With Conor McGregor, as we've seen, you just never know.
