Conor McGregor has been told the smart move for his UFC comeback would be to ease into action with victory over Tony Ferguson.
The Irishman has recently returned to MMA training after over a year out with a broken leg that he suffered in his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier. Despite not fighting in all of that time, and losing two fights before his lengthy sideline spell, McGregor remains a huge name who has been called out by multiple champions.
But without a win since January 2020, McGregor will likely have waited three years to register a victory when he finally returns to action. Former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub believes the best course of action for the Irishman is to organise a favourable match-up with his long-time rival to get back in the win column before taking on the likes of Michael Chandler or Kamaru Usman.
"If I'm Conor McGregr's team, the smart route to go is you've got to get a win," Schaub told The Schmo. "So if my poison is Michael Chandler or Tony Ferguson, it's not a knock on Tony, but I would say that Chandler just beat him so go for Tony, get a win and go fight Charles Oliveira or Islam Makhachev.
"Makhachev is a very tough fight for Conor, so he needs to get a win. Tony Ferguson is probably your best bet out of that bunch, you've got to get a win and Michael Chandler is tough.
"I had Michael Chandler on Food Truck [Diaries, his interview show] recently and I called him the UFC's cash cow. They want him to fight Nate Diaz, they want him to fight Conor, because he's going to be around so I thought he'd get those big boy fights and then get the winner of Charles Oliveira vs Islam Makhachev. But he's not getting Nate, so they might give him Conor, we'll see."
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Oliveira is technically not the lightweight champion, but he is the most recent title holder and was stripped after missing weight for his last defence by half a pound. He has been angling for a fight with McGregor over the past few months, but the Irishman has indicated that he would rather go up to welterweight and challenge the winner of Kamaru Usman vs Leon Edwards.
However, after losing his last two fights, McGregor almost certainly will have to earn his way into a title opportunity, particularly at welterweight where he has had just three fights in his career. He went 1-1 with Nate Diaz at the weight in 2016 before viciously knocking out Donald Cerrone in 2020.
McGregor is currently ranked as low as No.12 at lightweight after amassing a 1-3 record in the division during his UFC tenure. He was unbeaten at featherweight on his way to his first world title and immediately had a successful title challenge against Eddie Alvarez, but he proceeded to lose to Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018 before twice being defeated by Dustin Poirier last year.
