Remember when Conor McGregor was a mixed martial artist?
Before Conor McGregor, everyone would look at you sideways when you dropped the 'MMA' acronym. Since he has become a global superstar, it seems that only every other person is perplexed by those letters in that order.
However, it's been a minute since McGregor has fought inside the Octagon. It's been so long that the UFC have crowned an interim champion of the division whose throne he claimed in his last MMA fight. The logical next move would be a title unification bout against Tony Ferguson, but if he doesn't mind vacating the championship, there are plenty of other fun fights in the UFC for him, such as completing the trilogy against Nate Diaz.
The spanner that's been thrown in the works is the fact that despite having a 0-1 record, McGregor could well be one of the biggest PPV draws in professional boxing right now. If he decides to step into the ring again next, he won't be short of opponents with marquee names from the world of pugilism.
https://twitter.com/mannypacquiao/status/933684224749481984
He's already lost to one half of 2015's 'Fight of the Century' and now the other half has expressed interest in welcoming McGregor back to the ring. As former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping explained on his
Believe You Me podcast, if he were in McGregor's shoes right now, he would accept a dual against 'the Pac-Man'.
"Conor's yet to come back and defend the lightweight belt. We don't know if he's going to do that. Manny Pacquaio is calling him out for a boxing fight. That'd do huge numbers. Dana said this week that he doesn't know if Conor's ever going to fight again. Probably by that he means in the UFC."
"If I'm Conor I'm taking the Pacquiao fight all day long. That wouldn't be as big as the Mayweather fight, but Jesus Christ, people love to watch Conor and they love to watch Pacquiao. That is a huge fight."
Well, it would be slightly better than fighting Paulie Malignaggi inside the Octagon.
We suppose.
