Freshly minted UFC featherweight champ Conor McGregor took to Twitter late Saturday night – Sunday morning Dublin time – with a reminder on where he stands in the mixed martial arts world.
The tweet featured a picture of McGregor standing in front of a luxury car, with the tag line: “Line them up on their knees with their hands out. I want them to beg me.”
While that might seem like standard McGregor bombast, he didn’t just come out and taunt the rest of his competition just for the sake of doing so.
Saturday’s UFC on FOX 17 at the Amway Center in Orlando might as well have been an infomercial for the McGregor brand.
A wild night of fights left fans with plenty of potential discussion points. There was lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos’ swift and stunning finish of Donald Cerrone in the main event. There was heavyweight Ailstair Overeem’s brutal knockout of former champion Junior dos Santos. And there was a wild lightweight scrap between fan favorite Nate Diaz and Michael Johnson.
And yet, McGregor, thousands of miles from the action and just a week removed from his 13-second knockout over Jose Aldo Jr. at UFC 194, emerged with the evening’s biggest buzz.
In an unprecedented showing, not one, not two, but three winning fighters out of the evening’s top five billed fights angled for a bout with McGregor in their post-fight, in-Octagon interview. Dos Anjos, Diaz, and featherweight contender Charles Oliveira all said they were the fight to make for the sport’s biggest star.
Unless your name is Holly Holm or Ronda Rousey, a main event against McGregor is the fastest route to big bucks in the UFC. McGregor has made it clear he wants to hang on to his 145-pound title while also chasing 155-pound gold, so his choice of his next opponent is the biggest-money question the UFC faces as the calendar turns to 2016.
So which way will McGregor lean? Diaz, for his part, made the most entertaining pitch. Fighting for the first time in a year, Diaz put in exactly the type of performance that have given he and his controversial older brother, Nick, such a devoted fan following over the years. Nate Diaz jabbed and trash talked his way through an entertaining unanimous decision win over a flustered Johnson.
He then called out Diaz in a profane tirade during his post-fight interview. While FOX bleeped out about 95 percent of the chat before cutting it short, through the magic of the Internet, uncensored versions from the international feed soon became available.
“[Expletive] that," Diaz said. "Conor McGregor, you're taking everything I worked for, mother-[expletive]. I'm gonna fight your [expletive] ass. You know what's the real fight, what's the real money fight – me. Not these clowns that you already punked at the press conference. Ain't nobody wants to see that. You know you can beat them already. It's an easy fight. You want the real [expletive]. Right here.”
Dos Anjos, meanwhile, wasn’t as profane as Diaz, but he still made his case. Many had looked forward to a potential McGregor-Cerrone matchup, as much for the hype leading up to such a bout as for the fight itself, but dos Anjos spoiled the party by blitzing Cerrone in 66 seconds and ending his eight-fight win streak.
The Kings MMA fighter said during his post-fight Octagon interview that he’d be willing to go to Ireland to get a McGregor fight if that’s what it took. Later, at the post-fight news conference, he questioned whether the featherweight champ really wanted to move up to 155.
“Conor McGregor said he wants to come to my division, and I think it wouldn’t be a smart decision,” dos Anjos said. “But if he wants to come, I’d be happy to welcome him.”
Then there’s Oliveira, who used a nasty guillotine to submit Myles Jury in the first round of their featured prelim bout. Oliveira’s got an impressive jiu-jitsu game, with eight submission victories in the UFC, which could give McGregor trouble. But he also missed weight for the Jury fight by four pounds, the third time he’s missed weight. Oliveira has the right idea with the callout, but he needs to be more professional in making weight before he can be considered for a title shot.
So who will win the McGregor sweepstakes? Diaz appears to be the runaway winner in terms of potential fan interest. The UFC does have precedent in letting their champions take big-money “fun fights,” from longtime middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s knockout win over former light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin to former welterweight champion Matt Hughes’ catchweight win over the legendary Royce Gracie. McGregor vs. Diaz would simply add to such an aura.
But maybe McGregor is serious about chasing after two titles, regardless who holds the belt, in which case, dos Anjos would be in for the payday of his life. And none of this conjecture takes into account another big-money fight in McGregor’s own division in Frankie Edgar.
The MMA world awaits the UFC and McGregor’s decision with bated breath. And as McGregor’s tweet demonstrates, he knows it.
Follow Dave Doyle on Twitter: @DaveDoyleMMA
