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After all the hype and anticipation, UFC 229 has now concluded and Conor McGregor, the notorious Irishman, is licking his wounds after a one-sided defeat to Lightweight Champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov.
However, the real story of the match was the incredible post-fight scenes that then ensued as Champion, Khabib taunted the fallen McGregor, had words with McGregor's team then unbelievably leapt over the Octagon and attacked McGregor stable-mate Dillon Danis who was sat at ringside.
An ugly melee ensued in which police had to restrain both teams as well as irate fans who attempted to jump the Octagon.
The traditional post-fight interviews had to be scrapped as UFC President, Dana White told Khabib that another riot would ensue if he put the belt around his waist.
Almost forgotten amidst all the chaos is what McGregor's fourth defeat of his MMA career means for his future.
The biggest draw in UFC history has competed in four of the five highest grossing events in the company's history and UFC 229 could well surpass all of them at the box office once the numbers are calculated.
It was a long road back to the Octagon for McGregor who left the promotion on a high following his Lightweight Championship victory over Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 on November 12, 2016.
From there McGregor in a stunning move negotiated a mega deal to fight legendary Boxing Champion, Floyd Mayweather Jr in a Boxing match.
Dubbed as "The Biggest Fight in Combat Sports History", the UFC Champion, McGregor lasted 10 rounds with the most successful Boxer in history and incidentally landed more punches on Mayweather than his long time rival, Manny Pacquaio had managed in their superfight, several years earlier.
Now, after two years away in his first fight back, McGregor has been surpassed as the premier Lightweight fighter in the promotion and has decisions to make about his future.
What next for Conor McGregor?
McGregor will fight again. There is little doubt about that. He displayed considerable ring rust in his first bout in two years and in actual fact, "Notorious" did astonishingly well to match Khabib for almost four full rounds of combat before he succumbed to the match winning choke.
Due all the drama of the post-match, it almost seems inevitable that UFC fans will be clamouring for a rematch between the UFC 229 headliners.
The only question here is whether either man will want to face each other again. Khabib will no doubt believe he has decisively defeated McGregor already and has nothing left to prove by fighting him again and McGregor may worry his aura would be damaged should he lose again so soon after his comeback.
Should a Khabib-McGregor re-match not occur, then an all-time dream bout against George St. Pierre may be a possibility.
GSP already went on record to declare an interest in fighting the winner of the bout between McGregor and Khabib, but perhaps he would consider competing against the loser instead in a main event which could very likely set UFC pay per view records.
Crucially, it would be a bout in which McGregor would be more likely to win with GSP having only fought once in the past five years and would enhance his legacy after a damaging defeat to Khabib.
McGregor vs St. Pierre needs to be booked right now.
