UFC 223: New Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov Wants McGregor.. But Will Conor Ever Fight In The UFC Again? Or Is He Now Just Another Celebrity?

A penny for the thoughts of Conor McGregor.. one week on from his bus rampage at the Barclays Center, we finally have a new (and active!) UFC Lightweight Champion in Khabib Nurmagomedov.. But not even Dana White could try and sell you that this matter is settled once and for all..

It really was a comedy of errors leading up to UFC 223. For a start, Tony Ferguson slipped up during a media event and crocked his knee. This was now the 4th time the highly anticipated bout between Khabib vs Ferguson has been cancelled due to injury, and many fans & pundits are starting to talk about a curse. Dana White for his part said he never wants to book the fight again, but it's still one of the best possible match-ups on paper while Conor McGregor is out of the game, at least if they can both eventually get inside the octagon..

Step forward Max Holloway, who also gamely agreed to step up to a higher weight class against the beast Khabib, with barely a weeks notice. But a botched weight cut caused him to pull out at the very last minute as the fighters were heading to the scales.

That kicked off a mad scramble behind the scenes at the UFC, who were desperate for a live opponent to throw in with the Russian Eagle. Many feel Khabib has been champion in all but name, particularly with interim belt holder Tony Ferguson now injured, the drama spilled out onto social media as it seemed every fighter in the UFC lightweight division was hawking their services, and even one or two heavyweights!

Anthony Pettis was offered the fight next, his original opponent Michael Chiesa having been ruled out due to injuries sustained from McGregor's bus attack. But Pettis was 0.2 pounds over the 155 limit at the official weigh-in and apparently wanted to be paid more than UFC were willing to offer him at such short notice, so he never made it back to the scales.

Paul Felder tried to get the fight, but the New York State Athletic Commission refused to sanction the bout for the title because Felder is not ranked by the UFC in the top 15 lightweights. Which is laughable considering he is ranked in the top 10 world-wide by the highly respected Fight-Matrix which ranks fighters across all MMA promotions.

UFC rankings are a running joke in general, worse even than boxing, and this isn't the first time the situation has descended into farce because of it..

In the end, Ragin' Al Iaquinta was the last man standing to face Khabib. He wouldn't be eligible to win the lightweight title according to the NYSAC, but Al didnt really care, the part time Real Estate Broker has an uneasy relationship with the UFC as of late, and his media outbursts have resulted in him being frozen out by the management.

When Ragin' Al turned up to a recent press event to promote UFC 223, no one had even bothered to print a sign with his name, so he made his own with a biro pen!

The chance to headline a major UFC event was worth more to Iaquinta than a belt, and he was also on a legit 5 fight winning streak of his own. Al certainly didn't let anyone down on the night, losing by unanimous decision when many people thought he would get squashed early by Khabib.

No one truly knowledgeable about the MMA game (apart from Conor McGregor die-hards perhaps!) can now argue that Khabib Nurmagomedov is not a worthy title holder for the UFC. He is on a 26 fight winning streak, he has dominated most of his opponents on the ground and by submission, even if his stand up game is still not up to much, which also makes a potential McGregor match-up so very intriguing..

With all the distractions in his life, its hard to guess when McGregor might compete once again in the UFC, the trappings of fame and wealth seem to have gone to his head. It really was a once in a lifetime shot he cashed in against Floyd Mayweather, with speculation that he pocketed over $100 million USD from just that one fight.

Let's hope when "The Notorious" gets bored of spending his money and being just another celebrity, it's not too late for him to give us one or two more exciting nights in the octagon. McGregor is probably already a MMA legend in his own life-time even if he never fights again. But what happens when the money runs out? He can't live off Burger King forever..

The competition won't be losing any sleep over it that's for sure, and if Conor ever wants to get back into the mix, he'll need to go up against the likes of Tony Ferguson, Kevin Lee and of course "The Eagle" Khabib Nurmagomedov, who seems to have everything in his locker to be a long time dominant UFC champion, if he can keep putting opponents to ground like he has so far, he will certainly be very hard to beat..