UFC 246: McGregor vs Cowboy - What's next for the big winners from last night's show?
UFC 246 is in the books, and will likely go down as one of 2020’s most memorable shows, due to the incredible performance from Conor McGregor in the main event. ‘The Notorious One’ destroyed fan favourite Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone with strikes after just 40 seconds of the opening round, and could well go onto a title shot in his next fight.Elsewhere on the card, there were big victories for Holly Holm, Aleksei Oleinik, Brian Kelleher and Diego Ferreira – who upset former UFC champion Anthony Pettis in the opening bout of the pay-per-view card.
So where should the big winners from UFC 246 go next? Here are a few suggestions.
#1 Conor McGregor
Prior to UFC 246, we identified three potential next opponents for Conor McGregor; the winner of the upcoming UFC Lightweight title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson, ‘BMF’ champion Jorge Masvidal, or old rival Nate Diaz, who ‘The Notorious One’ famously split two fights with in 2016.
After his win over Donald Cerrone, it appears that one of those three fights is definitely most likely for the Irish superstar, but which one makes the most sense? For us, it’s the showdown with Masvidal. UFC President Dana White has suggested he wants to make a second fight between McGregor and Khabib, but right now, Masvidal would be the better option.
Firstly, we don’t know whether Khabib will get past Ferguson in their upcoming bout, and even if he does, it’ll likely be much later into 2020 before he’s willing to fight again due to his commitment to Ramadan, which will run until May 23rd. That likely sidelines ‘The Eagle’ until late summer at the earliest, and that’s assuming he doesn’t pick up any injuries. It just seems silly to keep a healthy McGregor on the sidelines until then.
Plus, Masvidal is likely at his peak as a drawing card right now after his performance at UFC 244 against Diaz; if he doesn’t fight McGregor, the only fight for him that makes sense is a title shot against Welterweight kingpin Kamaru Usman, and that’s not a good match for ‘Gamebred’ on paper.
The UFC can always return to McGregor vs Khabib in the future but for now, McGregor vs Masvidal makes too much sense not to happen. The promotion should look to book it as soon as possible – perhaps even for May or June.
Also read: Conor McGregor's 5 fastest knockouts in the UFC