Next for Conor McGregor? UFC says Frankie Edgar or RDA-Cerrone winner for Champ vs. Champ bout

By Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

There are going to be some very unhappy challengers in the UFC at either featherweight or lightweight following Conor McGregor’s UFC 194 victory, because the options being presented after the event for his next fight is likely to leave someone with a previously promised or intimated shot without that fight.

Dave Sholler, UFC VP of public relations, at the post-fight press conference laid out two scenarios presented by Dana White for McGregor’s next bout, echoing comments made by Dana White on the Fox Sports 1 post-fight show. The first is that McGregor takes on Frankie Edgar to defend his newly won UFC Featherweight Championship, and the second is him moving up to lightweight, where he would challenge the winner of next week’s Rafael dos Anjos-Donald Cerrone bout for the UFC Lightweight Championship.

There are several fighters who would be upset with one or both of these scenarios. For Jose Aldo, who wants his immediate rematch as others have gotten, neither of these scenarios involves him. For Edgar, if McGregor moves up it means he once again loses out on that title opportunity that continues to elude him. And if McGregor does move up, anyone in the lightweight picture is left behind. Specifically, former Champ Anthony Pettis would no longer get the shot he expects to get if he beats Eddie Alvarez next month.

MMA manager Malki Kawa made some comments on Twitter regarding Pettis’ thoughts on the matter, and he’s calling for the McGregor fight himself rather than getting left out of a title fight.

Penick’s Analysis: I have no idea which direction is the right one right now. These are all intriguing options, there’s merit to them all, and there are varying levels in which they can be sold. If Pettis beats Alvarez and gets passed over for McGregor, a win over someone else would set him up for that fight. Tony Ferguson should also be in that lightweight conversation after what he did Friday night. The McGregor-Edgar fight would be fantastic, and a rematch between McGregor and Aldo would be huge. All make sense in their own way, and we’ll see what the UFC does in the probably near future.

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