Conor McGregor has been provisionally suspended until June 2016 after the Nevada Athletic Commission released their medical results from UFC 194. Although it is extremely unlikely that such a ban will be served, that would potentially throw quite a spanner in the works of plans to fight the winner of Rafael dos Anjos and Donald Cerrrone as early as March or April.
John Kavanagh yesterday spoke of the possibility of a lightweight title fight as McGregor's next bout before a move back down to featherweight to defend his title against Frankie Edgar at UFC 200 in July. However, those plans may now need to be altered if subsequent examinations are as severe as the Commission's initial estimates.
Nine fighters in total from Saturday night's bill have been handed a provisional six month ban including Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold. As for McGregor, if that lightweight bout is to go ahead in March or April, he will have to show that a wrist injury sustained against Aldo is not as bad as initially feared.
The Commission's report was obtained by MMA Fighting on Monday and it shows that McGregor requires an x-ray of his left wrist which, if positive, must be cleared by a doctor. If that x-ray doesn't go to plan then it's a lengthy wait until June before McGregor can get back in the Octagon.
It's thought that the second hammer fist used by McGregor after the initial knock out punch was actually more of a hammer wrist. If you look at the footage you can see McGregor's hand come across Aldo's face with his last punch before John McCarthy managed to get across and stop the fight.
As for Aldo, he's been suspended until February with no contact training until January after his 13 second knock out defeat at the hands of the Dubliner.
All in all, we won't worry too much about McGregor. While the medical checks are necessary they do tend to be overly severe. A quick examination and a bit of paperwork filled out and we'd imagine McGregor will be training for the winner of Dos Anjos and Cerrone as soon as that fight is over.
