{"id":265527,"date":"2017-12-12T08:19:59","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T16:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=265527"},"modified":"2017-12-12T08:19:59","modified_gmt":"2017-12-12T16:19:59","slug":"edson-barboza-believes-doesnt-matter-conor-mcgregor-returns-mma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/edson-barboza\/edson-barboza-believes-doesnt-matter-conor-mcgregor-returns-mma\/","title":{"rendered":"Edson Barboza believes it doesn&#8217;t matter if Conor McGregor returns to MMA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The fighting future of UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor is currently shrouded in mystery. There is a chance, of course, that he&#8217;ll return to MMA, where is career began, where fights with interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson, lightweight contender <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/fighter\/nate-diaz\/\">Nate Diaz<\/a>, welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, and welterweight legend <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/fighter\/georges-st-pierre\/\">Georges St-Pierre<\/a> could await. He might also return to the boxing ring, where he recently battled Floyd Mayweather Jr., for potential bouts with Manny Pacquiao, Paulie Malignaggi and even Oscar De La Hoya. And finally, there&#8217;s a chance he simply never fights again, content to live off the millions he&#8217;s already earned.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, we&#8217;re all wondering what the future holds for Conor McGregor, but in the opinion of top lightweight contender Edson Barboza, who battles Khabib Nurmagomedov in a possible title eliminator at UFC 219 this December 30, it really doesn&#8217;t matter. In his opinion, interim champion Tony Ferguson is now the true champion, and Conor McGregor is simply an afterthought.<\/p>\n<p id=\"N1W2nX\">\u201cI\u2019m number three in the rankings and I see<span>\u00a0<\/span>Tony Ferguson<span>\u00a0<\/span>as the actual champion,&#8221; Barboza recently told <a href=\"https:\/\/sportv.globo.com\/site\/combate\/noticia\/barboza-analisa-luta-com-khabib-estou-pronto-para-ser-campeao-do-ufc.ghtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Combate<\/a> (h\/t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloodyelbow.com\/2017\/12\/11\/16763460\/edson-barboza-ufc-lightweight-division-conor-mcgregor-mma-news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BloodyElbow<\/a>).\u00a0&#8220;I always make this very clear. It doesn\u2019t matter whether or not<span>\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/fighter\/conor-mcgregor\/\">Conor McGregor<\/a><span>\u00a0<\/span>comes back. I don\u2019t know if he is coming back or not and I don\u2019t care. All I hope for is that whoever wins my fight with Khabib, becomes the next one to fight Ferguson for the belt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the case, Barboza is ready to shine in the lightweight division, where he soon expects to wear gold.<\/p>\n<p id=\"Iu5h4Y\">\u201cYou can expect the best Edson Barboza that has ever stepped into the Octagon [at UFC 219],\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m training a lot. I know my time is now. I\u2019m ready to be an UFC champion, you\u2019ll see.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Do you share Edson Barboza&#8217;s opinion that Conor McGregor is no longer the true UFC lightweight champion?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 12\/12\/2017.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The fighting future of UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor is currently shrouded in mystery. There is a chance, of course, that he&#8217;ll return to MMA, where is career began, where fights with interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson, lightweight contender Nate Diaz, welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, and welterweight legend Georges St-Pierre could await. He might also [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":227308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10089,10425],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Edson Barboza believes it doesn&#039;t matter if Conor McGregor returns to MMA | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Surging UFC lightweight contender Edson Barboza reasons why it doesn&#039;t matter if Conor McGregor returns to the UFC&#039;s Octagon.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/edson-barboza\/edson-barboza-believes-doesnt-matter-conor-mcgregor-returns-mma\/\" \/>\n<meta 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