Despite the fact that the most popular fighter in the promotion lost, UFC 196 was still an enormous success. Conor McGregor draws people in every time he fights because of his bubbly personality and his bravado, so naturally people want to know who and when he is going to be fighting next.
The latest rumblings have made it seem as though McGregor's next fight will be a rematch with Nate Diaz at UFC 200. The UFC wants UFC 200 to be an extremely enticing card, and given that more than 1.5 million people bought the pay-per-view for McGregor and Diaz's first fight, a rematch there makes sense.
Having said that, there are plenty of people that would prefer McGregor drop back down to 145 pounds and defend his featherweight title against Frankie Edgar. After McGregor lost to Diaz it was assumed that his next move would be to drop back down to 145 to defend his title, but both he and Diaz have said they were open to a rematch so the UFC understandably wants to capitalize on that. The issue is many people are clamoring for McGregor to defend the title he currently holds instead of continuing to fight at welterweight, 25 pounds above where he usually fights.
McGregor's striking coach, Owen Roddy, is a proponent of McGregor's next fight being against Edgar in New York as he said it would be huge. MMA was just legalized in New York, and the UFC plans to have an event there in November, so of course it wants to make that a huge card. Putting the UFC's biggest star on that card, defending his title, would certainly accomplish that, so Roddy may be on to something.
Since losing the featherweight title to Jose Aldo three years ago Edgar has won five consecutive fights and is primed for another title shot. Edgar has made it very clear that he wants a rematch with Aldo at some point, but first he wants to take on McGregor and get that title.
The UFC certainly has a tough decision to make regarding the next few moves for McGregor. Of course it is possible it could have McGregor fight Diaz at UFC 200 in July then fight again in New York against Edgar four months later. But if it was forced to choose between the two, Edgar might be the better choice for his next opponent because it would be a title fight, and it seems as though at this point no matter who McGregor faces, the fight will draw a lot of attention.
