Conor McGregor vs. the Top Featherweights: How Does He Match Up vs. Aldo & Co.?

Conor McGregor stepped into the Octagon against Marcus Brimage as one of the best but unknown European prospects the UFC could find. 

It took him just one minute and seven seconds to justify the signing. It took him just a few minutes into the post-fight press conference to make the rest of us want to watch him fight again, giving birth to the hype that took the MMA community by storm.

He kept the hype alive with victories against Max Holloway and Diego Brandao.

At that point, most of us were intrigued, and about half of us were convinced—it was time to put this brash Irish featherweight in the cage with a worthy opponent.

In stepped Dustin Poirier to be that worthy opponent. He was supposed to help most of us decide whether the flashy, confident McGregor was the real deal. As it turns out, he is—and it didn't even take him two minutes to prove it.

Even after seeing his hand raised as the dominant victor over a top-five opponent, some still question how high a ceiling McGregor has. We'll find out soon, especially considering Dana White's already pegged him as the next in line for a shot at featherweight gold.

"Here’s the thing: If you go down the list, every one of those guys has fought Jose Aldo already. Conor (McGregor) hasn’t," White told UFC.com's Matt Parrino. "So who do you line up next for the champ other than Conor (McGregor)? Everybody else has fought him."

Win or lose in the fight for the title, he'll likely find himself sharing the Octagon with other top-five featherweights. How will he fare? Scroll on as we speculate. 

No. 4: Ricardo Lamas

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With 14 technical knockouts in 16 victories, it's no secret that Conor McGregor's greatest strengths are witnessed while he's standing.

And while Ricardo Lamas is the more well-rounded fighter, there's little doubt he'd struggle in any sort of a striking match against McGregor. 

Lamas is a fighter who lives and dies by the amount of pressure he's able to put on his opponent. He's a bully; he walks forward, picks his shots and smothers his foe into defeat. Lamas would need to close all the distance to see any sort of success against the Irishman. Staying on the outside against such a fluid fighter akin to McGregor would ensure that Lamas makes it home way before curfew. 

But closing the distance on a fighter isn't always such an easy task. Just look at Lamas' title fight against Jose Aldo. He froze in his opportunity to seize the crown and suffered a unanimous-decision defeat.

There's no way he can afford to freeze against McGregor.

There's also no way of assuming he won't.

Prediction: McGregor defeats Lamas via second-round TKO

No. 3: Frankie Edgar

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The former lightweight champion has never been finished. Even in some of the most one-sided rounds many of us have ever seen, Frankie Edgar was able to pull himself together and survive against Gray Maynard—twice.

The reason few people outside of Maynard have ever had Edgar against the ropes? The law of inertia: "An object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."

He's already proved to us that he doesn't get tired, so there's little reason for us to assume that gravity and our understanding of human capacity play any sort of role in his abilities—he's not human. 

All jokes aside, Edgar doesn't get hit often. Even the blows that do land only do so in a glancing manner. He's also one of the better wrestlers in any of the lighter weight classes, which poses a problem for just about anybody at 145 pounds.

He gets in and lands a few punches. He gets out and makes you miss. He does it all over again for 15 to 25 minutes.

At this point, you've probably noticed that I've yet to talk about what sort of advantages Conor McGregor would have in this bout. That's because he doesn't really have any in this one. 

He's obviously the better striker, but there's no telling how many opportunities he'll have at showcasing it against the perpetually moving Edgar. 

Prediction: Edgar defeats McGregor via unanimous decision 

No. 2: Cub Swanson

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Cub Swanson's seven-fight winning streak proves that he's easily one of the better fighters the UFC's featherweight division has to offer. You can't argue that.

His losses to Jose Aldo, Chad Mendes and Ricardo Lamas prove that he tends to struggle against some of the other better fighters the UFC's featherweight division has to offer. You can certainly argue that. 

And by most accounts, Conor McGregor is one of the better fighters the UFC's featherweight division has to offer. Do the math. 

Swanson succeeds in his ability to set the pace, strike from the outside and take the fight to the mat when he sees fit. He offers variety and speed, which bodes well for him against just about any other featherweight. But in being so skilled on his feet comes the confidence that he can stand with just about anybody. 

But being confident with the idea of a stand-up war against McGregor likely won't bode well for him—pretty much because all the other confident fighters have fallen in the first round. This is where the Irishman wants him. 

It's not as if Swanson has a glass jaw; he's only been knocked out once before. But none of us assumed Poirier had a glass jaw either, and look what happened to him.

Prediction: McGregor defeats Swanson by first-round TKO

No. 1: Chad Mendes

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Conor McGregor thinks he's better than just about anybody between 155 and 145 pounds. He made no efforts to shy away from his confidence in a potential matchup with Chad Mendes should he defeat the champion at UFC 179. 

"Chad (Mendes is) a five-foot-six (inch), overblown (fighter)," he said in UFC 178 post-fight press conference. "He should be a 125er but he's gone past that limit. Now he's just a little small body builder that's stuck in the 145 division. He gets tired quick. He's five-foot-six (inches tall) with a 65-inch reach. I have an eight-inch reach advantage. I would tower over him. I would maul Chad (Mendes)."

McGregor had several people chuckling as he described his advantages over Mendes. But once the chuckling stops, you start to find a lot of truth in the points he made. 

He's a longer fighter than Mendes is, which wouldn't be so much of a problem if McGregor wasn't capable of utilizing his reach against a lesser striker—but he is. The only way Mendes wins this fight is by getting the Dublin native to the mat, which wouldn't be so difficult if he was capable of doing anything else in the bout—but he won't. 

He'll be the shorter fighter who'll struggle to slow dance with the rangier McGregor who wants nothing more but to keep his distance and pick the former title challenger apart.

Prediction: McGregor defeats Mendes via second-round TKO

Champion: Jose Aldo

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Here's where things start to get really interesting. We're talking "biggest sub-170-pound title fight in UFC history" interesting. 

Picture Jose Aldo vs. Conor McGregor in Rio de Janeiro's Maracana. Picture Aldo vs. McGregor in Dublin's Croke Park. Regardless of what hemisphere you picked, you probably didn't picture it with a single empty seat. (Note: Unpredictable Irish and Brazilian weather will probably prevent this from ever happening.)

What you also probably pictured was one of the best stand-up wars you could ever possibly witness. 

In the blue corner you have an elusive striker who's capable of knocking out just about anybody at 145 pounds. In the red corner you have the most dominant fighter that the lighter-weight classes have ever seen.

A few early, bruising leg kicks from the champion should stop the challenger from moving as fluidly as he's used to. A few accurate strikes to the head from the challenger should force the champion to think twice about engaging in any sort of striking match. 

It's a tossup, really. But considering McGregor was ultra-impressive in his last outing and Aldo was anything but, it's hard not to give the Irish fighter the nod and the crown.

Prediction: McGregor defeats Aldo via split decision 

Kristian Ibarra is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report. He also serves as the sports editor at San Diego State University's student-run newspaper, The Daily Aztec. Follow him on Twitter at @Kristian_Ibarra for all things MMA.