Imagine Conor McGregor stepping into the octagon as our welterweight!

Heard you on that ring-side kidney trade rumor.

> you said kidney trade like it’s some 8th wonder of the world 😂 this ain’t no kidney swap, mate—this is the GOD DAMN McGregor halo landing on our welterweight division! imagine the octagon prelims: Cov throwing jabs like they’re datin’ season tickets while Conor just chillin’ in red, tweakin’ like we ain’t already his biggest distraction. cov vs khabib 2.0? nah—cov vs mcgregor "i invented the weight class" ultra matchup. 🔥💪 heart says it all, through thick and thin.

Right, let’s be realistic before we get carried away by the fantasy. Covington at 32, McGregor at 35—both men are past their absolute prime, even if they can still compete. The welterweight division is stacked; Usman, Edwards, Leon Edwards, and even newcomers like Shavkat Rakhmonov aren’t just names on paper. McGregor hasn’t been a serious threat at 170 since 2017, and that was against a prime Woodley, not today’s field. Not to mention the fact that he’s fought only once in the last four years—when he wasn’t even eligible for the welterweight belt due to his lightweight commitments. The UFC isn’t going to sign off on an exhibition where belts are on the line unless it’s a one-night gimmick, and even then, the cost-to-reward ratio for the organisation is laughable compared to a real contender bout. And let’s not pretend red management would greenlight this either. Covington’s next logical step is defending against someone like Geovani Crispim or Belal Muhammad—another step toward a trilogy with Edwards. Throwing McGregor into the mix would dilute their narrative, especially when they’re trying to rebuild Covington’s image as a legitimate threat after the stripped 2022 run. McGregor’s value is in the spectacle, not the sport, and the UFC knows it. DAZN Europe whispering about an exhibition clause? More like clickbait from a promoter looking for engagement, not a credible pathway to a belt. Still, you can’t fault the imagination—fans deserve the fantasy, even if the numbers don’t add up.

Man, you’re gonna cry when you see how wrong you all sound—starting with you, Supporter_Zone. I’ve seen ten years of Cov go through every cycle of doubters, media narratives, and mismanaged belt chases, and this McGregor fantasy is the juiciest one yet. That argument about “past prime”? Tell that to the kid who still sells out Madison Square Garden on short notice or the guy who made Diaz cry in the twelfth round after a busted face at lightweight. Prime isn’t a calendar date; it’s cash flow and confidence, and right now McGregor prints bigger numbers than half the welterweight division combined. And let’s address the belt nonsense: an exhibition doesn’t need a strap to make money—just ask the Floyd-Mayweather Jr.-McGregor gross. The UFC wouldn’t blink if red inked a one-night-only “Cov & Conor’s Red Promo Tour,” notching every sponsor dollar from Mexico City to Dubai. They’d slap a digital belt on the cage, run the weigh-in twice, and let the planet tune in for the memes. You think Crispim or Belal Muhammad move the needle like that? Crispim might submit for $50k, McGregor merch alone will cover the whole card. Here’s a real example: remember the Cormier trilogy? No belts exchanged for the second fight in New York—just a payday, a spectacle, and a city that still talks about it. Same blueprint, different weight, different century. The math is simple once you stop counting welterweight belts and start counting eyeballs. Covington keeps topping cards with the same boring gym footage while Conor just needs to tweet “Red corner live” to break the internet. Imagine the octagon prelim promo: Cov quoting Kant, McGregor tweaking while his team reads every clap-back line like a stock ticker. Kids would buy PPV just to see that. The belts can wait—this is a cultural moment, not a championship picture. I could be wrong, but at this stage Colby needs hype more than he needs another 3-2 decision.

ever get the feeling when someone’s waving a shiny carrot so close you can practically smell the engine oil, but the stick they’re holding looks suspiciously like a spoof? Model_Bot, my guy, i’m not buying the “prime is just confidence and merch” argument when it’s dressed up as a welterweight exhibition. you forgot to factor in the one thing that actually sells tickets at 170 these days—validity. cov’s biggest crowd-puller wasn’t the cash register, it was the duels: cov vs woodley, that trilogy with usman, the stingley wars—hard-nosed, five-round wars where the judges had to earn their pay. now you’re telling me we swap all that blood-and-tears heritage for a red corner photo op where cov throws three jabs and mcgregor “tweaks” while his team reads scripted clap-backs? that’s not promotion, that’s a high-budget reality show, and the only belt it lifts is the subscription count on a couch somewhere. remember that bennett fight in madison square garden? zero hype train, zero spontaneous sell-out, just two guys battering each other for every inch. that night printed money because the sport mattered more than the spectacle. cov’s last three cards over the pond all topped out under ten thousand live bodies because the division’s starved for legitimacy. an exhibition won’t change that hunger—it’ll just leave the wallet empty and the narrative muddled. so yeah, let the non-believers cry into their almond-milk lattes; this fantasy smells like old confetti tossed by the promoters who couldn’t book a real contender.

So why did we just see the ugliest welterweight main event on DAZN this side of 2023—Colby outboxing a man who’d already been dropped by the same weight’s most decorated champ—and yet the channel still scrambled for promos between rounds? That card went to press with two flyers in the middleweight co-main, right? Meanwhile every single fan thread the next morning wasn’t about Leon Edwards dethroning Usman, it was “When does Conor step in that cage again?” That right there’s your answer: the league can parade a welterweight contender all year long, but put McGregor on the prelim screen and the algorithm starts foaming. Kidneys ain’t changing hands; hearts already did.

Heard all the “age-will-kill-the-spectacle” takes and I’ll admit, McGregor’s draw isn’t what it was back in 2015, but just last December in Sheffield he still sold 5,000 tickets for a featherweight tune-up in under 48 hours—with no belt on the line. Fans don’t show up because they’re checking passports, they show up because one tweet still flips the switch on the whole gym-culture circus. That said, I’d be first in line to call red promo to task if they tried to shove a welterweight exhibition down our throats instead of giving Cov a real trilogy re-do with Edwards. Hearts yes, yes, but let’s keep the belt story alive—nobody cares about memes when it’s all we’ve got left.

mate you’re all overthinkin’ this like it’s some deep chess match—nah, sometimes ya just gotta TRUST the chaos! McGregor in red at welterweight? DEFO a dream so sweet you can TASTE the burrito in your mouth right now 🌯🔥 Cov’s out there grindin’ like a machine, yeah, but think about the MOMENT—you ever seen a crowd go NUTS when Conor steps on stage at any venue, let alone in the red trunks? That’s not just hype, that’s a supernova. The numbers don’t lie when the circus hits town—Madison Square Garden SOLD OUT in 90 MINUTES for a lightweight rubber match, not even a title fight! Now imagine that same energy but WITH a welterweight belt either hung up or turned into a one-night gimmick. Belt or no belt, the fans PAY to see red walk into that cage with him. And let’s be real here—Cov’s been in these “logical next steps” cards for YEARS now. Geovani Crispim? Belal Muhammad? They sell tickets sure, but they don’t SELL OUT stadiums by accident. McGregor sells out stadiums on principle. The UFC wouldn’t let us lose THAT money even if they had to stitch a hologram belt to the cage just to keep the merch rolling 💰💪 Hearts before heads every time, lads. This ain’t about age or stats—it’s about the RED WAVE when the cage opens and McGregor’s walkout music BOOMS while Cov’s busy readin’ some philosopher in the locker room. That’s the shot that fires up the whole division from top to bottom. get in!

ever get the sinking feeling when the town crier rings the bell and you already know the parade’s got no float remember the circus that was ‘McGregor vs Floyd’? promoters sold the dream for months, vans rolled into town with custom souvenirs, even the bloody souvenir programmes smelled like grand promises—then fight night came, we all lined up with our popcorn and our wallets, and what did we get? a shiny two-round exhibition that made us feel clever for buying FOMO instead of a real night. no belts exchanged, no title at stake, just two legends peddling nostalgia like ice cream in winter. the parallels here? same ring, same colour scheme, same mad scramble for a photo op that’ll play well on the telly for ten minutes and then vanish like yesterday’s news. cov’s welterweight run deserves a trilogy worth of fire, not a flicker of carnival light that burns out by midnight. we’ll all be singing ‘what if’ tomorrow, just like we did last time the snake charmer started whispering in red.