The jump up to lightweight was only natural. In fact, it's going too far to even say that it's a 'jump up'. This is where McGregor belongs and that's long been said by anyone within the SBG camp. The opportunity was at featherweight and that opportunity was well and truly taken. Now the natural course of events is to move back to lightweight.
But even though he could make history by becoming the first UFC star to hold two belts simultaneously, that may not be the end of the weight jumping. The featherweight champion has fairly emphatically laid out his plan for the next year.
While I get that lightweight belt, I will await a featherweight contender to emerge. Then I will go back down and, while I'm back down, a contender will emerge from the lightweight division and I will go back up.
That is how I see my career playing out for the next while.
That was before UFC 194. But now that the first part of his plan is in place, John Kavanagh is suggesting that welterweight is still in the back of everyone's mind in the not too distant future.
Writing in his column on the 42.ie, Kavanagh has explained why McGregor and his team feel that 170lb is very much within the realm of possibility.
I’ve said from the beginning that welterweight may not be out of the question. One of Conor’s main sparring partners, Gunnar Nelson, is a welterweight, so Conor is very used to that feel. I would not be at all surprised if we’re preparing to go for a third belt a year from now.
The move from 145 to 155 is well within his comfort zone but surely 170 is a step too far? However, we know better than to doubt him at this stage so it would be impossible to rule it out, particularly if Kavanagh feels he has it in him.
It must be said that Carlos Condit, who lost that welterweight war to Robbie Lawler at UFC 195, stands at 6ft 2. That certainly a factor but when you see the likes of Johny Hendricks stand at 5ft 9 (the same as McGregor) and struggle to make weight at 170, it does show that height certainly isn't the main factor.
McGregor's frame and build is very different to that of Hendricks' so it would take quite a bit of conditioning to get him up to that level but it's obviously something that's in the back of his mind over the next couple of years so it would be foolish to completely rule it out.
