Conor McGregor: What happens now that the featherweight champion will not fight at UFC 200?
McGregor's roll of the dice has not paid off - for now, at least
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Your support makes all the difference.The mixed martial arts beat is one that is rarely lacking in talking points and, this week, there was no greater evidence of that than the ever-developing story of Conor McGregor's fallout with the UFC.
At the time of writing, we currently have a UFC 200 main card that features a headline bout of Jon Jones vs Daniel Cormier in a fight for the undisputed light heavyweight title of the world.
While it may lack the name McGregor, it is still a fight well worthy of being in the top slot of the UFC's biggest ever card and it's currently one of the UFC's better rivalries.
After all, it has everything a good fight should have with a title on the line, a storied history and a back and forth bitter feud where both gentlemen are able to speak competently on the microphone to build up the next engagement. It should be an amazing fight and fight fans are eagerly anticipating 9 July.
But what about the man who finds himself on the sidelines while the UFC put on their biggest ever fight card? McGregor has rolled the dice in the past two weeks and, at this point, it looks like his gamble has not paid off - in the short term, at least.
The UFC's biggest star has been pushing the boundaries with his bosses for a while now and it looks now as if he may just have taken it one step to far.
Arguing the toss as to whether McGregor should or should not have done the promotional work that the UFC wanted him to do would be almost a pointless exercise at this point. Having engaged in this debate multiple times over recent days, you soon realise that both sides have equally strong arguments to their point of view.
What's happened here is that both sides, the UFC and team McGregor, haven't budged one step and what's ultimately occurred is that the party with the definitive power in the situation (Dana White and the UFC) have ultimately won this battle.
The Irishman may be missing from the biggest show in UFC history but has that much been lost for the UFC? Read some reports and you get figures of $45 million and upwards but I think some factors need to be considered before totally writing off that revenue.
For instance, what if McGregor fights at UFC 201, UFC 202 or UFC 203 like the Dana What has suggested? Surely the event he does fight on become all that much bigger now?
It certainly makes the card another pay-per-view that fight fans have to see which isn't exactly an easy thing to achieve having just stripped fans of their cash at UFC 200.
Cliché as it may be, there is also the factor that 'distance makes the heart grow fonder'. McGregor being away from the spotlight for a while will only make his eventual return all that much bigger whether it be at the events aforementioned or even Maddison Square Garden in November.
The 'McGregor - will he, won't he be fighting at UFC 200' has been a messy situation played out in the public eye but perhaps this is something that needed to happen. Both parties now sort of know where they stand with each other - the UFC at least don't believe McGregor is bigger than the company.
As for the question being asked seemingly every two seconds since all this started - 'will McGregor fight at UFC 200?' - I think we can now categorically say that he won't. As outlined above, the card is now strong enough and there are more wins to be had later down the line with the Irishman returning.
Is there one tiny, tiny chink of light? Perhaps. White has categorically said that he doesn't want to deny Nate Diaz the opportunity to fight at UFC 200. With Diaz saying he only wants to fight McGregor, there is always the slim chance the UFC give him what he's asking for but that is highly doubtful.
My prediction - UFC 200 remains as it is. McGregor fights at 202 against Diaz and then again at Maddison Square Garden at UFC 205 in November against either Jose Aldo or Frankie Edgar. The beauty of this game is that predictions are normally widely inaccurate - that's what makes the sport so great.
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