By Patrick Whalen

Yesterday afternoon ESPN’s Darren Rovell confirmed the rumors that Conor McGregor had signed a new deal with the UFC. It was originally reported that Conor’s new deal was for 8 fights but Rovell later confirmed with UFC President Dana White that the new deal is for 6 fights. As many UFC fans know McGregor will be fighting in UFC 229 on October 6 against the current lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov who has a 26-0 record in the UFC.

Many are wondering what the multi-weight class champ has left to prove with his 21-3 UFC record and making a reported $70 million for fighting Floyd Mayweather in 2017. Some analysts think if McGregor beats Khabib at UFC 229 they could try and make this rivalry a trilogy which would still leave at least 3 more fights available. So people have said that Tony Ferguson could be a possible opponent after not getting his chance to fight Conor for the lightweight belt before the Mayweather fight. Others think Conor may jump back down to the featherweight class and fight Max Holloway and try and reclaim his featherweight belt. There have also been some rumors that Conor may jump up a weight class and go for the welterweight belt title against Tyron Woodly or Colby Covington. If he does jump up to welterweight Conor could potentially win his third belt at three different weights.

Some other potential fights for Conor could be a Jose Aldo rematch, Frankie Edgar, Dustin Poirier, Brian Ortega, or Darren Till. If McGregor Khabib does not become a trilogy or if there isn’t even a rematch some of these more unlikely fights could actually happen. Whatever the case we all know McGregor will always provide a ton of pre-fight hype and trash talk that UFC and McGregor fans eat up. This is also a great deal for the UFC if he stays committed to that six-fight number because for those 6 fights they know that the pay per view streams will be up just because McGregor is on the card. Pair any of those fights with another belt fight or high ranking fight and they could do record numbers on PPV for that night. It was a great deal for both sides that have made all UFC fans very happy today.