Before he even stepped foot inside the Octagon, Conor McGregor said he would win the UFC featherweight and lightweight titles. A little over three years after his first fight with the biggest MMA promotion, his two-title dream is now reality. The obvious question now is “What’s next for Conor McGregor?” And after announcing that he and his girlfriend are expecting a child, the UFC’s first simultaneous two-title champion called out the UFC’s new ownership group and demanded a share of the company.
“I have both belts, a chunk of money, a little family on the way… they want to keep me in the Octagon now, I want equity, I want equal share, I want what I deserved, what I’ve earned,” Conor McGregor boldly said at UFC 205’s post fight presser.
Conor McGregor has become the biggest name in all of MMA in just three years, rewriting the rulebook along the way. He has yet to defend the featherweight title he won last year. And now, defending his new lightweight title does not appear to be on his list of priorities.
This makes for a tricky situation in the two divisions he rules over. Interim featherweight champion Jose Aldo has long wanted to avenge his 13-second knockout loss to Conor McGregor. After a brutal domination of former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos, Tony Ferguson has established himself as one of the best 155-pound fighters in the world; while unbeaten lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov called out “chicken” Conor McGregor following his UFC 205 win against Michael Johnson. There’s even the specter of going after a third belt.
“I’m sure he would. I’m sure he [expletive] would. They all would,” Conor McGregor said when told that welterweight champion Tyron Woodley would readily fight the Irishman.
But with a baby on the way, and the opening salvo of an unprecedented negotiating tactic with the new UFC owners unleashed, it looks like both contenders and fans will have to wait a while for the arguably the UFC’s busiest fighter to step inside the Octagon again.
