As Conor McGregor prepares to make history in a couple of months time when Rafael dos Anjos stands between him and the prize of becoming the first simultaneous two-weight UFC world champion, there is one suggestion that the Dubliner won't be with the promotion for much longer.
Bleacher Report writer Jeremy Botter told Canada's The Sport Network that other ambitions are likely to come into play for McGregor.
Botter joined us on Off The Ball to tell us about his hypothesis and says "it's no secret".
"Conor has never wanted to be a cog in the wheel. If you're in the UFC, you're a cog in the wheel. You're just another part of the machine, you're expendable, you get what they give you even if you get to a level where Conor has gotten to," Botter explained.
Photo - Conor McGregor hints at Croke Park show in Ireland http://t.co/1RbWF7dkqB pic.twitter.com/L3Bsh4z0Dv
— SevereMMA.com (@SevereMMA) November 26, 2014
"Conor McGregor wants to be the wheel. That's been his dream from the beginning. He doesn't want to just make a lot of money. He wants to make all of the money and he is following that boxing model and actually one thing that hasn't been publicised much is a year ago, he actually trademarked the term McGregor Sports and Entertainment and his girlfriend Dee Devlin is actually the president of that company in Dublin. He is already laying the ground work for this. I believe his time in the UFC is limited. I'm not saying he's going to be out of the UFC this year or next year. But I do believe he has a set amount of fights left that he wants to do with the UFC and then at that points he is going to go out on his own."
Botter believes we're coming to a point where McGregor's status is fast outgrowing that of the UFC which is when his goal is likely to come to fruition.
"His intention honestly is to do Croke Park on his own. He wants to do that fight in Croke Park, the UFC are never going to do it just because of the timezone difference and how much cost it would represent to put on a pay-per-view in the afternoon and other parts of the world."
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