Conor McGregor finds himself in a position with a lot of options. Coming off of his spectacular, mind-boggling 13-second KO of former UFC featherweight kingpin and pound-for-pound great Jose Aldo, there are a lot of questions surrounding what will happen next with McGregor. Will he move to lightweight, or stay at featherweight? Will he vacate the belt. or not? Will he rematch Jose Aldo, or take on a new contender? Let’s take a look at some of the possible scenarios that may play out next for Conor McGregor.
The Immediate Rematch
A lot of fans are calling for Aldo to get an immediate rematch, and I fully understand where they are coming from. Aldo was the pound-for-pound number one fighter at the time, and has a long successful legacy to warrant a rematch. In addition, many felt Aldo was robbed out of a good performance via the unpredictability of this sport. However, throwing Aldo in there with McGregor again can definitely have its consquences. For one, it wouldn’t evolve or progress the division any; if anything, it puts the featherweight division on hold while there are two title-worthy contenders sitting by in Frankie Edgar and Max Holloway. While you can argue that Edgar and Holloway could fight each other in the meantime, Edgar was promised a title shot as his next bout.
Secondly – it’s just bad timing. McGregor took little-to-no damage in those 13 seconds, and could probably fight again next week; Aldo on the other hand was put unconscious. This means Aldo would have to wait to get medically cleared while McGregor sits idle on the shelf. I do think that Aldo and McGregor will meet again later on down the road, but fight fans are ready to move on from this match up. We have endured an entire year of being hyped for this fight, and it’s ready to move on. It ended in very convincing-yet-unconvincing fashion, but that’s just MMA.
New Contender(s)
As I alluded to earlier, Edgar and Holloway are two guys deserving of a title shot (Edgar has a stronger claim to that than Holloway does). Booking McGregor vs. Edgar makes the most sense because of the timing – neither McGregor nor Edgar took any damage in their last fights. This means they could both make a quick turn around (quick still being rather slow considering the magnitude of this match up). In addition, the match up itself is much more marketable for the UFC than booking McGregor/Aldo II. Edgar can make the claim that he defeated Mendes in a more convincing fashion than McGregor did, and the wrestling pedigree of Edgar once again brings up the “wrestler” question for McGregor to deal with. While we may not get the back-and-forth banter and tension that McGregor/Aldo brought to us, it is a very high-level fight between two of MMA’s finest fighters.
So this brings up the question, “what does Jose Aldo do?”. While taking some time off would be in Aldo’s best interest (just to recover from the physical and mental toll of the fight), I believe a comeback fight for Aldo would be great just to erase any doubts that the Jose Aldo of today is any less of a fighter than the Jose Aldo of previous years. Aldo vs. Holloway could be an exciting match up and give Holloway the chance to prove whether or not he is championship material. Holloway has been campaigning loudly for a title shot, but with Jose Aldo now bumped into the number one (or two) contender’s seat, this would be a way to prove Holloway is indeed ready to walk the walk.
Conor McGregor vs. Frankie Edgar (UFC 198, Madison Square Garden in April would be a nice option)
Jose Aldo vs. Max Holloway (Could headline a Fight Night in Hawaii if the UFC ever books one, or perhaps could be featured on UFC 197 in Brazil)
Moving to Lightweight
Here is where things can get very, very interesting. John Kavanagh, Conor McGregor’s trainer, has reportedly said McGregor can’t make the weight cut down to featherweight anymore. Whether Kavanagh meant he “shouldn’t” make the weight cut anymore or if he physically “can’t” make the weight cut anymore is still to be decided. According to McGregor in the post-fight press conference, he definitely felt comfortable fighting again at 145 lbs. However, if he moves to lightweight, he will most certainly be taking on the winner of Rafael dos Anjos and Donald Cerrone (who are set to fight Dec. 19th).
There is a question I want to bring up here: does the winner of RDA/Cerrone affect McGregor’s likliness to move up? I believe McGregor vs. Cerrone is a much more marketable fight than McGregor vs. dos Anjos, and match up wise it is more exciting to casual fans (although both are fantastic). So, if “Cowboy” Cerrone reigns victorious, the likliness of Conor moving up could increase whereas if RDA wins, expect McGregor to defend that featherweight belt against whoever the UFC determines is next in line.
So this brings up another question: if McGregor moves up, what happens at featherweight? At the post-fight press conference, McGregor was absolutely adamant that he will NOT be vacating his featherweight belt, and instead will be defending both of them simultaneously. This could lead to some tense discussions between McGregor and the UFC brass (especially considering some of the word choices McGregor has been using to indicate that he is not just a fighter, but a business associate of the UFC). Regardless, the best possible outcome is that McGregor fights as much as he wants; this could result in McGregor fighting Donald Cerrone for the lightweight belt if Cerrone wins. In the meantime, Frankie Edgar could be taking on either Jose Aldo or Max Holloway for the number one contender’s spot (or the Interim belt just so they can “unify” with McGregor later). McGregor, win or lose versus Cerrone, could then drop back down to 145 and fight whoever he needs to.
