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Later this month in Las Vegas, a fight that lands at the spectacle end of the spectrum headlines UFC 202, as Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor square off in a rematch of their UFC 196 encounter that came together on 10-days notice and ended with Diaz forcing the Irish superstar to tap in the centre of the Octagon.

Photo by Ed Mulholland / Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)

Despite the fact that both men are competing outside of their natural weight classes – Diaz is a lightweight, McGregor the featherweight champion and they’re fighting at welterweight – and nothing about the first fight made an immediate rematch feel necessary, they’re doing it again (brother) and the contest has been the most anticipated fight on the UFC calendar since the day it was first announced. Sure, the fight itself is a sporting competition, but in the greater scheme of things in the UFC, this is a spectacle fight – one that has generated far more mainstream interest than any championship bout this year and will do tremendous business at the box office and on pay-per-view.

While those are strong examples of the paradox facing the organization right now as it tries to find a balance between the two competing sides, perhaps the best summation of the issue came from new lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, who has spoken openly about wanting to face the winner of the Diaz-McGregor rematch and had this to say to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto earlier this week:

“I’ve said it from the very beginning: Fighting the best guys in the world doesn’t pay as good as the circus. I want to join the circus. I’m trying to get that circus money.”

For the Philadelphia native, who won the title in July with a first-round technical knockout win over Rafael dos Anjos, Diaz and McGregor represent significant paydays, while a showdown with presumed No. 1 contender Khabib Nurmagomedov is the bout that makes sense from a sporting perspective, but will no generate the same kind of bank for “The Underground King.”