Conor McGregor is going to have some options when he’s ready to return to action.

During his time healing from a broken leg sustained in his trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier last year, McGregor has continued to interject himself into several conversations regarding future matchups. Whether it be with titleholders at lightweight or welterweight, or top contenders like Michael Chandler, anything is always possible for MMA’s all-time biggest star.

Most recently, “The Notorious” has gotten into back-and-forths with a fellow former two-division champion, Henry Cejudo, after having his techniques criticized when sharing some training footage on social media.

Spending some time away himself, Cejudo is likely to return to action this year as he’s re-entered the USADA testing pool. With his sights set on an eventual challenge of Alexander Volkanovski’s featherweight crown, “Triple C” has also said he’ll fight McGregor, too. That would be quite a shock to see happen next — or ever — for each, however, and Cejudo notes that he’d like to see McGregor get a win against someone more on his level at this stage.

“I like the Tony Ferguson fight for him. I think that fight is winnable for Conor,” Cejudo said on The Triple C & Schmo Show. “He cannot be taking these high-level competitions. He’s gonna get hurt. He’s gonna continue to keep getting hurt. I think, he goes up with Tony, and then maybe — of course, he’s a cash cow — give him whoever he wants at ‘55 or ‘70, but I think he needs to get his feet wet. At least f****** win, man. Win a damn fight.”

Both McGregor and Cejudo’s last victories inside the octagon came in 2020. For the Irishman, he quickly dispatched of Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in a welterweight contest while a few months later Cejudo retired off the heels of a second-round TKO of Dominick Cruz. McGregor has since lost twice in a row against the aforementioned Poirier. His last lightweight win came in Nov. 2016 when he defeated Eddie Alvarez to claim the title.

“It’s crazy because there’s a lot of flaws that he has,” Cejudo said. “As good as he was in the past, there’s still a lot of flaws that he has that he’s still not fixing. So I’m still not sold on that chump.

“Show some damn wrestling, show takedown defense. If I was Conor McGregor with all that money that you have, have somebody to live with you full time where they’re with you, they’re dissecting you, and they’re making wrestling fun. He needs to find a teacher that could really teach him. Not a coach, a teacher. And then once you find that teacher that can really teach him, and then you put it into practice where you’re actually going live and things of that nature. But what happens with a lot of these guys is they go too hard too early and yeah, wrestling is the toughest sport. It will break you, man.”

---

TOP STORIES

Return. Valentina Shevchenko says it’s ‘very possible’ she fights for bantamweight title by end of 2022.

Scoring. Robbery Review: Ketlen Vieira vs. Holly Holm at UFC Vegas 55.

Plans. Glover Teixeira walks back retirement talk ahead of UFC 275 title defense.

Nonsense. Jorge Masvidal responds to callout over DMs with Michel Pereira’s wife, calls it ‘a fake narrative.’

Wild. Matt Brown tells crazy story about the only time he’s missed weight in UFC career — and how a fake doctor fooled everyone.

---

VIDEO STEW

The MMA Hour.

Icons: Anderson Silva | UFC Connected.

Undefeated Islam Makhachev Secures Submission Win in His UFC Debut | UFC 187, 2015 | On This Day.

Israel Adesanya Goes Jewelry Shopping in Beverly Hills.

Aljamain Sterling’s Teammate’s Crazy Knockout.

---

SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Solid.

Road to the UFC!

Insight.

Can you?

Quick trilogy at the P.I.

The setup.

Perspective.

Squad.

Solid cornerman.

Advice.

Now that’s a shirt.

Fancy Outlaw.

I can only wonder how many driving altercations Sean has been a part of.

Graduation day!

It’s an idea.

Gancho izquierdo Larry.

---

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Aiemann Zahabi (8-2) vs. Ricky Turcios (11-2); UFC Fight Night, July 9

Makwan Amirkhani (17-7) vs. Jonathan Pearce (12-4); UFC London, July 23

---

FINAL THOUGHTS

McGregor vs. Ferguson is actually a relatively logical matchup when looking at the current landscape of lightweight. The only problem is that considering their recent results, I just can’t justify that as a main event which you absolutely know it would be.

Thanks for reading and special thanks to M.R. follower “Sofisticuffs” for the new weekly poll suggestion!

---

POLL POSITION

Last Week’s Results

Friday: 80% of 400 total votes answered “No” to “Do you think PFL doing pay-per-view events is a good idea?”

Thursday: Poll for “Who wins this weekend?” was split right down the middle at 50% for each Santiago Ponzinibbio and Michel Pereira out of 517 votes. Pereira won the fight via split decision (28–29, 30–27, 29–28) in UFC Vegas 55’s Fight of the Night.

Wednesday: 70% of 552 total votes answered “Holly Holm” to “Who wins on Saturday?” Ketlen Vieira defeated Holm via split decision (47-48, 48-47, 48-47) in the UFC Vegas 55 main event.

Tuesday: 64% of 855 votes answered “Charles Oliveira” when asked “Who would win?” a hypothetical matchup against Islam Makhachev.

Monday: 57% of 626 votes answered “Logan Storley” when asked “Who did you think should have won?” Storley defeated Michael Page via split decision (48–47, 47–48, 49–46) in the Bellator 281 main event.

Today’s exit poll:

---

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @DrakeRiggs_ on Twitter and let him know about it. Also follow MMAFighting on Instagram and like us on Facebook.