New Year’s Resolution: Conor McGregor Edition
By Eddie Sanchez
Closing out 2020, The Bad Promoter will publish a few New Year’s Resolutions for some of our most prominent combat sports friends. The fourth in this series is Conor McGregor, who returns on January 23rd to rematch Dustin Poirier.
The whole world knows who Conor McGregor is. He is a supremely accomplished professional inside the cage and has the type of personality that only few have carried and been fortunate to capitalize on. Despite a largely uncompetitive loss to Khabib, followed by various legal issues and strings of inactivity, his star still shines bright in the sport.
Given that we are less than one month away from his return against Dustin Poirier, our New Year’s Resolution for the former champ-champ is to have an active 2021, win the Lightweight title, and defend it.
Step one is to get past Dustin Poirier a second time. The two originally met at UFC 178 back in 2014, where Conor finished Dustin within one round, via punches. This rematch should be much closer considering the improvements that Dustin has made over the years. However, Conor looks like he is in incredible shape and a focused McGregor is a tough man to bet against.
Assuming he is victorious on January 23rd, Conor McGregor will be elevated to the number two contender in the world within the Lightweight division. At this point, there will be some decisions that need to be made.
First, Khabib will have to decide whether he intends to follow through with his retirement plans. Considering he is a man of faith, we should take him at his word. This would set up a McGregor-vs-Gaethje matchup for the vacant title. While that matchup would be a pick-em, for this exercise let’s move forward McGregor winning that title.
That would be a huge assumption and one that I don’t take lightly. Gaethje is an unbelievable fighter and his style would likely give McGregor major problems. Having said that, when McGregor is supremely focused, he is truly one of the elites in the sport and my money would be on him.
Now, if he successfully regains the Lightweight Championship, the final ask for 2021 would be for McGregor to defend that belt. This has been a major criticism of his career. After winning the Featherweight Championship in 2015 against Jose Aldo, he immediately moved up two weight classes to face Nate Diaz in back-to-back bouts. Following that split, he won the Lightweight Championship against Eddie Alvarez, only to lose it to Khabib.
The fans want to see McGregor defend a belt and prove himself as a true champion. Although there could be a lot of moving parts by that point in time, based on the rankings, the likeliest opponents he could face would be Michael Chandler, who also fights on January 23rd against Dan Hooker, or Charles Oliveira. These two men would likely have to face each other to earn the hypothetical title shot, and considering the amount of moving parts in this situation, we will leave it at that.
When considering McGregor’s M O, it is very likely that he would move on after winning the Lightweight Championship a second time. He has shown more interest in cash-grabs than legacy-building moves. There is a lot of noise from Jake Paul trying to lure the Irishman into the boxing ring. If Dana were to sign off on this, there is no doubt in my mind that Conor would pounce at the opportunity.
Additionally, it’s very possible that McGregor could move up to the welterweight division rather than defend the belt. While this scenario is less likely, it could present itself as an option if one of two facts find themselves to be true: Masvidal is back in the win column, or Usman moves on to the Middleweight division after Izzy moves up to Light Heavyweight.
A Masvidal matchup has been mentioned in the past, and this would be an excellent PPV event if staged.
Now, I am not a completely irrational person, but there could be an interesting disaster scenario for the Welterweight division: Usman beats Burns, Khamzat defeats Edwards, Masvidal defeats Covington, and Usman moves up in weight.
IF, and I stress, IF this lengthy string of events are to happen, the top of the Welterweight division would likely be Masvidal and Khamzat Chimaev. If all of these things find themselves to be true, and Conor wanted a title shot, could you really imagine Dana saying no?
The way they have been maneuvering with title shots, there is no chance. If Masvidal successfully defeats Colby and finds himself ranked as the number one contender in the division, then this would set up a huge cash grab for the UFC.
Alternatively, if Dana insists on his newfound lovechild Khamzat getting that next title shot and McGregor were somehow convinced to face him, then it’s very possible that he could find himself in a De la Hoya-esque situation where his star power would simply gain street-cred for taking on the challenge and not be too negatively impacted by a loss.
Now I know what you must be thinking after reading all of this – I am absolutely insane. I understand that, and would welcome those criticisms, but similar to College Football, there is a time and place for talking heads to view every possible scenario that may go down at a given moment. I have simply chosen that today is that opportune time.
For now, let’s hope for the McGregor of old on January 23rd, so the entire 2021 can be filled with excitement.
