After Ronda Rousey's loss, is the pressure on Conor McGregor at UFC 194?

(This story first appeared in today’s USA TODAY.)

If there was any doubt as to the identity of the UFC’s golden kids, the promotion pretty much squashed it this past summer with a poster.

Ronda Rousey and Conor McGregor’s larger-than-life pictures greeted fighters in June as they attended a UFC athlete summit to learn new training methods and brush up on social media etiquette.

Then the UFC women’s bantamweight champ and a featherweight title contender, respectively, Rousey and McGregor’s presence sent a clear message to fighters called to Las Vegas for the meeting.

“It’s more or less a symbol of where you want to be ultimately in the UFC as one of their top stars,” UFC flyweight Dustin Ortiz told USA TODAY Sports.

Raquel Pennington, who fights in Rousey’s division, saw something simpler.

“I saw it as an advertisement for their money makers,” she said.

Six months later, as the UFC approaches a trio of year-end events capped by the McGregor-headlined UFC 194 on Saturday in Las Vegas, the poster’s meaning is different. It’s a snapshot of the combat sports world before it was turned upside down.

Rousey, who convinced UFC President Dana White to put women in the octagon and then became a groundbreaking star with a reported $6.5 million in earnings, is recovering with an unstable jaw after Holly Holm knocked her out in November at UFC 193.

No longer undefeated, some of Rousey’s luster was forcibly removed by Holm’s kick. That puts McGregor in an interesting position, and before the most pivotal and likely most difficult fight of his career.

The popular Irish fighter reached new heights at July’s UFC 189 when he faced three-time title challenger Chad Mendes, a replacement for undisputed champ Jose Aldo (25-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC) after a rib injury forced him out, and won by third-round TKO to claim the interim featherweight title. More than 2,500 Irish fans showed up in Las Vegas to loudly cheer their man.

Jose Aldo and Conor McGregor

On Saturday, McGregor (18-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC) could climb even higher, cementing his self-appointed title as the world’s best 145-pounder if he can take out Aldo, the sport’s No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter, when he heads back to MGM Grand Garden Arena (pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET).

Or he could be the next to fall hard.

As Rousey’s story – and those of countless other high-profile athletes – suggests, there’s tremendous pressure to stay on top as a public face of a sports league. There might be even more now for McGregor, who’s run a PR gauntlet similar to the deposed champ, as he steps more into his own spotlight.

McGregor senses the expectations, because the former champ’s name comes up a lot when he answers questions about his career.

“It’s a comparison that I get a lot, but if anything, the comparison is just because we are two workhorses,” he said. “She puts in a hell of a lot of media work and I put in media work, as well. But in reality, we’re two different people, and we’re on two different paths, so I don’t really focus on her situation.

“I’m just doing what I’m doing, and I’m carrying this whole damn game. I’m doing single-leg squats with the whole game on my shoulders, because it ain’t nothing.”

McGregor said the difference between he and Rousey is the ability to prioritize for his duties inside the cage, not allowing those outside it to diminish his work. Never lost at an opportunity for a colorful metaphor, he said the two mirror the third edition of Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky,” but with a key difference.

“She had a lot on her plate and it showed in the contest,” McGregor said of Rousey. “Holly came out of the dark – in the shadows – and that can help a person. Have you ever seen ‘Rocky 3?’ Rocky was doing ads and doing talk shows and doing this and doing that while Clubber Lang was coming up in the shadows, hungry. I felt maybe that was a reference to that fight.

“I’m like Rocky. I have it all. I do it all. But then I’m still training like Clubber.”

If the promotion’s plans for Rousey are any indication, though, a loss wouldn’t sink McGregor’s career. Despite a six-month medical suspension for the former women’s champ, the UFC recently announced plans for an immediate rematch with Holm.

After Rousey’s loss to Holm, White said he thinks Rousey is an even bigger star than before.

It’s not a stretch that Aldo and McGregor could fight again if the first fight lives up to expectations. White said McGregor will headline an event at the 80,000-seat Croke Park stadium in his native Dublin if he captures the title.

Although McGregor has targeted ex-lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, who challenged him after his UFC 189 win, Edgar isn’t so sure. Slated to face Mendes the night before UFC 194 at The Ultimate Fighter 22 Finale, he doesn’t know what to expect.

“It doesn’t always go to the most deserving guy – it goes to the guy that’s the hottest right now,” he said. “That’s where Conor is.”

To up-and-comers like Ortiz, that’s sending a different kind of message about who’s going to carry the UFC’s torch.

“I think the pressure would be more on the UFC for putting (Rousey and McGregor) in the spotlight over everyone else,” he said. “They put a lot of eggs in those baskets.”

For more on UFC 194, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.