LY: WHAT’S NEXT FOR CONOR MCGREGOR?

By: Allan Ly
RP Show Intern

The Notorious Conor McGregor has never lost back to back fights in his career. Unfortunately something that seems impossible is now probable because of his second straight loss to Dustin “The Diamond “Poirier at UFC 264.

McGregor lost the trilogy fight to Poirier – albeit by ref stoppage – at the end of round one at UFC 264 on July 10. Now it is time for McGregor to look at his career long and hard to see what to do next.

Similar to MMA greats like Chris Weideman and Anderson Silva, McGregor broke his leg during the fight.

The injury occurred at the end of round one when McGregor pivoted awkwardly and his leg folded from the pressure during his fight with Poirier.

There is an argument that McGregor goes after Poirier for a fourth fight. Dana White agrees with this argument because of what he said at the UFC 264 press conference according to Steven Marroco of MMA fighting. “ You can’t have a fight finish that way.”

I think that is not a good idea, McGregor needs to go on a winning streak before considering a rematch with Poirier.

If he fights Poirier again and loses, then what happens to McGregor’s drawing power? That outcome will, in my opinion, not benefit the UFC or McGregor.

I am excited for Conor McGregor to return to the UFC from his injury because his fights always draw the most money.

According to Scott Newman of Sportskeeda, McGregor owns the UFC top five with the best selling PPVs.

McGregor has exciting options for other fights with past opponents besides Poirier, where he can rebuild his momentum for another high-profile battle.

An option for McGregor can be a third fight with Nate Diaz, where both have a win against each other.

There is only one negative to this fight, as the second fight happened five years ago; however, both men are great promoters, so that should not be a problem.

Besides Diaz, here are some other fights that I think that McGregor should consider taking when he comes back from injury

Imagine if McGregor took a fight with Dan “The Hangman” Hooker as both stand-up games would be interesting to see.

This fight has a good chance of happening because each fighter lost their last two fights and both would want to get out of the slump.

I think McGregor will have good odds of winning that fight with Hooker since McGregor fought better opponents and beat them as well.

One of those opponents was Jose Aldo, wherein in 2015 at UFC 194, McGregor beat Aldo in 13 seconds, who had previously been undefeated for the past nine years.

There was one fight that did not happen with McGregor that I hope will happen when he returns.

McGregor was supposed to fight Rafael Dos Anjos in 2016 at UFC 196; however, he had to pull out because of a broken foot injury.

That fight led to Nate Diaz stepping up, and those guys fought in Welterweight at UFC 196, so McGregor could not defend his Featherweight title at the time.

The idea of McGregor vs Dos Anjos  picked up steam again as a result of McGregor getting into a heated altercation with Dos Anjos after his UFC 264 weigh-in, according to Pundit Arena’s Darragh Murphy.

Murphy also reported that Dos Anjos was a replacement if Poirier or McGregor could not fight at UFC 264.

There is another possibility for McGregor, and that is to forgo UFC altogether and go back into boxing.

McGregor’s last boxing match was with Floyd “Money” Mayweather in 2017, where he lost in the tenth round.

Mayweather recently fought Logan Paul on June 6, 2021, where it was an exhibition match, and it went the distance. 

McGregor would not have to worry about leg kicks, and his striking makes him formidable to have a decent career in boxing.

Whatever the case, McGregor’s career could take many interesting turns, and I can not wait to see what he does next.

(Follow Allan Ly on Twitter @Allantheintern)