Who is Next for Conor McGregor?

UFC 189, Conor McGregor beats Chad Mendes to become the interim featherweight champion, and with that, the Irish invasion started in UFC. Conor would go on to beat the featherweight legend, Jose Aldo to unify the belt, and it was just the beginning of the greatness. Conor becomes the first Double champion in UFC by beating the underground king, Eddie Alvarez in UFC 205 and single-handedly made UFC more popular than UFC was ever before.

But after his devastating loss in UFC 229 against the undefeated eagle from Dagestan, Khabib Nurmagomedov, the path ahead of Conor is not clear yet. After his suspension due to the brawl at UFC 229 was over, Conor has tried to pick up fights with many fighters such as Anderson Silva, Donald Cerrone, but has not been able to step into the octagon yet. There have been talks of a super fight between Conor McGregor and GSP, but GSP is retired, and he is more interested in the fight with Khabib which would cement his legacy as the greatest to ever do it. So what options do Conor have right now? Whom shall he fight?

Conor McGregor is the biggest draw in UFC without any doubt. So it would be insane if he fights someone who is ranked way below in the rankings and not a big name as Conor is. So Conor McGregor needs the spotlight, and he needs to be in the main event of a big card against a big name from the roster. Now it is not fair to the other fighters in the division, but unfortunately, that’s how the fight business seems to work. In the lightweight division, there are a couple of fascinating fights for Conor Mcgregor such as Tony Ferguson and Justin Gathje. But both of them will be a tough fight for Conor in which Conor might lose. But Conor needs a big win before his fans can rally for the rematch with Khabib, and UFC can make it happen. Khabib will fight Dustin in UFC 242. if Khabib wins then UFC is probably going to make Khabib VS Tony for the title. But if Khabib loses, then Tony might go-ahead to challenge Dustin for the title, and Conor can have the rematch he wants against Khabib. Title or not, Khabib VS Conor rematch will be a huge event for UFC.

Now if we take a look at the list of super fights for Conor, Conor has a couple of options there too. Diaz VS McGregor 3 is always on the card. fans would surely tune in to watch the most notorious rivalry in UFC history, and it makes more sense than the Conor VS Khabib rematch at the moment since Khabib dominated Conor in the first fight. Other than Diaz, there is a new name on the list of super fights for Conor. Jorge Masvidal has been calling Conor out for a meaningful period after his record-breaking knock out against Ben Askren. But Conor McGregor is yet to respond to Jorge, and also Dana White doesn’t seem interested in that fight since he thinks that Conor is too small in size to fight Jorge who is a welterweight.

So who does Conor fight next? A lot will depend on the main event of UFC 242 when Khabib fights Dustin for the title. And we also need to keep an eye on the fight between Nate Diaz and Anthony Pettis. If Diaz wins that match, and he calls out Conor post-fight in front of a sold-out arena then Diaz VS Conor 3 is a big possibility since that’s how the rivalry started, with a post-fight call out from Nate Diaz. So the subject of the matter is, Whomever UFC decides to put in front of Conor next, it’s going to be a super fight for sure.