Analysis: Conor McGregor deserves to choose who he wants to fight next

Conor McGregor in the last nine months has given the UFC its best-selling pay-per-view, its top-ranked live gate and another top five live crowd for Saturday’s UFC 202, for which pay-per-view numbers are still being tallied.

He deserves to choose what opponent he wants to fight next.

The charismatic Irishman scored three knockdowns of Nate Diaz in the first two rounds, survived a third-round beating to win the fourth and emerged with a 48-47, 47-47, 48-47 majority decision triumph in the fight-of-the-year front-runner at T-Mobile Arena.

After taking the bold initiative to take on Diaz consecutively at the UFC’s 170-pound welterweight limit – 25 pounds above his weight as featherweight champion – McGregor is being pressured by UFC President Dana White to return to featherweight for a rematch with the Brazilian Jose Aldo.

If he doesn’t, White threatened Saturday, McGregor will be stripped of his belt and Aldo will get it back.

McGregor knocked out Aldo, former long-reigning champion, in a title-fight-record 13 seconds in December.

So enthused by that triumph, McGregor sought to become the first UFC fighter in history to simultaneously hold two belts, and he had a March 5 date against then-champion Rafael dos Anjos.

Dos Anjos injured his foot in training less than two weeks before the fight. McGregor agreed to an attractive replacement bout against the just-off-vacation Diaz, who complained about his ability to make 155 pounds so quickly.

So McGregor decided to cooperate, agreeing to fight at a higher weight, a bout that left him fatigued and hurt by heavier punches in what became his first UFC loss in March.

He then risked another setback in the rematch. And his decision to resume training in Europe and blow off the news conference and marketing work that got him kicked off UFC 200 in July looked like the right move Saturday, when he needed every bit of advantage from his extended training camp to defeat Diaz.

Certainly, there needs to be a trilogy fight in 2017 with Diaz, but McGregor presented an effective case in his post-fight comments of why he wants that at 155 pounds, and why he deserves to select who he fights in the interim.

“After I came up [to 170], I didn’t make any excuses or any stipulations,” McGregor said. “[Diaz] got way bigger than last time, he grew.

“I knew what I was up against, was thinking in my head this could be a mistake, but I said, ‘[Forget] it. I trained hard. Be smart. Learn from your mistakes. Go in there and be confident.’ That’s what I did.

“I won’t do it again.”

He made similar sense in arguing he doesn’t believe Aldo did enough in July’s unanimous-decision victory over former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar to merit a title shot after the December rout.

McGregor clearly is intrigued in the pursuit of what he wanted in the first place – a chance to wear that second belt by fighting new lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, either at the UFC’s debut card in New York in November or at UFC 206 in Las Vegas on Dec. 30.

New featherweight boxing champion Carl Frampton of Northern Ireland drew a raucous Irish crowd to his Brooklyn upset of Los Angeles’ then-unbeaten champion Leo Santa Cruz in July.

Imagine the scene McGregor would create in pursuing that second belt Nov. 12 at Madison Square Garden.

White and the UFC won the first dispute with McGregor, raising hard feelings that still seemed present last week when the fighter showed up 30 minutes late for a pre-fight news conference.

In the next two weeks, McGregor’s situation will be fully addressed within UFC headquarters.

This time, the organization’s top bread-winner should have his way.