5 potential opponents for Conor McGregor on his UFC return
Conor McGregor had a bitter-sweet experience this past Saturday night. The reigning UFC Lightweight Champion made his professional boxing debut and went toe-to-toe with undefeated American pugilist Floyd Mayweather Jr.
The vast majority of combat sports pundits, as well as the legions of fans, gave Conor little to no chance of even landing a handful of strikes on Floyd. Nevertheless, the Irishman proved his doubters wrong once again—albeit to a certain extent—tagging Mayweather in the early going and giving the man one of the toughest wars of his life.
However, the UFC star’s dreaded cardio issues came back to haunt him once again, as he faded hard and fast after Round 6 of the matchup. FMJ took over, tagging his gassed ‘Notorious’ rival; punctuating the end with an exclamation point as the referee decided to call off the bout in Round 10.
Regardless, Conor gained respect during his TKO defeat at the hands of Floyd, as both fans and critics showered the Irishman with praise for putting on a considerably respectable performance in what was his pro-boxing debut.
With that out of the way, the UFC 155 pound kingpin is now likely to return to the Octagon in order to defend his strap. ‘Against whom?’ You say…Well, here’s a list of worthy, dangerous challengers for Mystic Mac’s UFC gold:
#5 Edson Barboza
Granted that Edson may have dropped a couple of bouts to fellow top contenders Tony Ferguson and Michael Johnson however with the run that the Brazilian is on as of late, it’s hard not to see him get a shot at UFC gold at 155.
Barboza is an excellent stylistic matchup for McGregor, what with the former being a deadly Muay Thai specialist, while the latter is a sniper with his hands and snake with his knees to the gut.
Both fighters have well-honed defensive grappling skills as well, with the Brazilian holding the edge in grappling offence over his ‘Notorious’ Irish foe.