The next time you see Conor McGregor enter the famed Octagon, you’ll know who’s the boss before he ever throws a punch.
It will mark the end of a yearlong odyssey where he almost fought to become a two-weight world champion, then didn’t and then became some sort of weird moonlighting welterweight until he finally felt his work was done. The next man up for McGregor, fistically famous after duelling Nate Diaz twice and finally, narrowly getting the better of him at UFC 202, will define Ireland’s greatest export as a company man or the game’s latest rebel.
There isn’t any secret in saying McGregor has been on rocky terms with the UFC throughout 2016. He’s been a little more vocal than it likes their athletes to be, using his considerable clout to get things he wants and refusing to recede in silence when the promotion has tried to undermine him. Never has there been a time when the biggest star in the game was so vehemently interested in getting his piece of the action, and it’s caused more than a little friction.
Still, McGregor seems to have been winning most of the battles: He got his (totally pointless) Diaz rematch after making a fortune to fight him the first time, he got to keep his featherweight title while others fought over a (totally pointless) interim belt and now he’s just set the (not at all pointless) record for guaranteed money made in a UFC fight.
The only time he scored a loss outside the cage this year was when he was pulled from UFC 200 for missing a (totally pointless) press conference, and even that might have been considered a win if you believe the event bombed without him.
Add up the points and pointlessness and you’d have to score McGregor’s struggle with the UFC in his favor to this point.
However the main event of this ongoing saga is just around the corner. McGregor has, at least temporarily, completed the Diaz portion of his career and is about to move back into more sensible, more familiar territory somewhere in the realm of featherweight or lightweight. He’s the featherweight champion, Jose Aldo’s silly paper title notwithstanding, and he’s also never shied away from his interest in returning to 155 pounds to chase a title there as well.
That means he’s heading to a date with Aldo to unify the belts, which seems to be the UFC’s preference, or he’s hunting Eddie Alvarez in an effort to jump the queue and do what he felt he was destined to do before this whole Diaz mess arrived on his doorstep, which seems to be his preference.
Plenty exists to suggest McGregor is not that interested in going back to featherweight anytime soon—or at all. To begin, he just spent most of the year at a fighting weight of 168 pounds. His coach hates the notion of him fighting at 145. He looks entirely too much like Skelator making that weight for anyone to feel comfortable.
If he’s truly not keen to make that cut again, he’ll be pushing hard for a shot at Alvarez. Likely, knowing the money involved and the appeal of being the first man to simultaneously hold UFC gold in two classes, he’ll push for that shot to come without vacating his 145-pound title, too.
But will the UFC let him make such a play? That’s where it gets interesting.
If Dana White is to be believed, the promotion is a little tired of McGregor holding up an entire division for no good reason. It wants him back at 145 and in his next fight, no questions asked. If he’s not, he’s going to vacate the belt and free everyone else up to move on with their lives.
Thus, the two sides have arrived at a bizarre impasse where the early days of negotiating through the media have commenced before McGregor’s swelling has even subsided from UFC 202. They’re all looking to get rich the next time he enters the cage, but there’s going to be a great deal of politicking and jockeying before something gets signed.
You’ll know who won out when McGregor’s next fight is announced.
As the man himself said: “The s—t is about to hit the fan.”
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