Conor McGregor plays to the crowd during the UFC 196 weigh-in on March 4, 2016 in Las Vegas. (Getty Images) Now that Conor McGregor avenged his loss to Nate Diaz at 170 pounds, the UFC’s plan is for the Irishman to head back down to the featherweight division to*defend the title he won in December against Jose Aldo. If he doesn’t plan to defend his title, UFC president Dana White has stated that McGregor would have to vacate it.
However, after his UFC 202 victory, the current UFC featherweight champion wouldn’t commit to a fight with Aldo, whom he knocked out in 13 seconds to win the title at UFC 194 and instead teased that he would be looking for bigger fights. McGregor’s coach, John Kavanagh, has long been against McGregor cutting down to 145 pounds and suggested there’s a possibility that his fighter never fights at*featherweight*again.
“I really don’t see the point in it,” Kavanagh said on “The MMA Hour.” “With all due respect to the [1]45 guys, especially after that fight with Nate, what are they going to do? What’s anyone going to do to him? I just think anyone he fights at that weight class, it’s almost like he’s cheating with the amount of power he has.”
Since debuting in the UFC featherweight division, McGregor has scored knockouts against six out of seven 145-pounders he’s faced. The most devastating McGregor knockout came*at the expense of Aldo, who currently holds*the interim featherweight title after defeating Frankie Edgar at UFC 200.
Considering what McGregor already did to Aldo, both he and his coach aren’t too excited for a rematch. However, if Edgar would have won, chances are McGregor would have accepted a new challenge.
“Unfortunately those guys didn’t keep up their end of the bargain,” Kavanagh said, with “those guys” being a reference to Edgar. “They had to go out there and prove they deserved it, prove that they had improved and go out there and beat Aldo and they didn’t. The fight was even more one-sided than their first contest. I guess Aldo had learned from the last time.”
In an ideal world, Kavanagh would have McGregor challenge for the lightweight title, currently held by Eddie Alvarez, and if McGregor were to win, he’d face Nate Diaz to cap off the trilogy.

I think it would be nice for him to be the champion, get the belt at [1]55 and then defend it against Nate,” Kavanagh said. “I think that would be a pretty amazing fight. Maybe in Croke Park in Dublin. I’d push for that. How cool would that be?”
But, as we all know, McGregor does whatever he wants, and Kavanagh wouldn’t completely rule out a return to 145 pounds, even if it is against his wishes.
“He can make the weight, don’t get me wrong about that. And he might do it, just to spite me.”