Conor McGregor has been advised against immediately taking on the biggest challenge possible in Kamaru Usman by Joe Rogan.
The Crumlin native has been making noise about defeating the UFC's welterweight champ in his first fight back from fracturing his tibia last July.
The Dubliner wants the accolade of becoming the first-ever three-weight champion in UFC history by facing the current pound-for-pound No.1 Usman.
Usman has laughed off McGregor's call out and vowed to "murder" him if they fought. The matchup is unlikely to happen anytime soon as top welterweight contender Leon Edwards is pencilled in to fight Usman once the champion has recovered from his hand surgery.
Rogan thinks McGregor shouldn't face a fighter of Usman's calibre in his return, as he said on the Hotboxin ’ podcast: "If Conor wants the most chance of success, I would say fight a guy who is a little below championship-level. Maybe like a guy on the come-up, who Conor has an advantage over, but is still a competitive fight.
"Give him a test but don’t put him in there right away with Usman. I think when boxers come back from a long layoff and they come back from a loss, one thing that boxers do that’s smart is they have a tune-up fight.
"I think there’s a reason why they’ve been using tune-up fights forever like astute managers. They know you got to knock the dust off and you’ll be better in the next performance.”
McGregor confirmed with Mirror Fighting that he will return at welterweight despite having competed just three times at the weight class in the UFC. It comes after the former two-weight champion has bulked up to 190lbs during his time on the sidelines.
Edwards was reportedly "made an offer" to step aside from his fight against Usman to allow a fight with McGregor, but the Brit laughed off the report. Usman's fight with Edwards has been confirmed by UFC president Dana White, but not officially announced by the promotion.
McGregor is hoping to pick up his first win in over two years when he returns to the cage later this year. The Irishman's 2021 campaign couldn't have gone worse as he was knocked out by Dustin Poirier in their rematch and suffered a horrifying leg injury in their trilogy six months later.
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