LAS VEGAS — Conor McGregor needed just 40 seconds to reestablish himself as the king of MMA. That was all it took to earn a first-round TKO of Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone on Saturday night at UFC 246 in T-Mobile Arena.

McGregor looked fast, strong and relentless in his first appearance in the Octagon in 15 months, initially hurting Cerrone with three shoulder strikes while in a clinch, then rocking him with a left side kick to the chin. As Cerrone slumped to the canvas, McGregor pounded Cowboy with strikes until referee Herb Dean stopped the bout.

Now McGregor has the world at his disposal again with numerous opponents lobbying to get the next fight against the Irishman and the big payday that comes with it.

“The who doesn’t matter,” McGregor said late Saturday night after drawing the fourth-largest gate in UFC history. “I’m looking at dates. I’m going to look at the calendar and see where we’re at.”

McGregor, who has now knocked out an opponent at featherweight, lightweight and welterweight, seems open to anything: a rematch with Khabib Nurmagomedov, the unbeaten UFC lightweight champion; a fight with BMF belt-holder Jorge Masvidal; or a boxing match with either Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao.

“I want to create spectacles for the people,” McGregor said.

UFC president Dana White seems to favor a rematch with Nurmagomedov. McGregor’s victory over Cerrone was his first appearance in the Octagon since the former dual-division champion lost to Nurmagomedov by fourth-round submission in October 2018. The promotion for the first fight featured nasty personal exchanges and the feud spilled outside of the cage when Nurmagomedov jumped over the fence and into the crowd trying to get a McGregor teammate.

White said a McGregor-Nurmagomedov rematch could challenge the pay-per-view record of 4.3 million buys set by McGregor-Mayweather.

“After how Conor looked [against Cerrone] and how Khabib won the first time and how famous he has become since that first fight, we’re looking at Hagler-Hearns,” White said. “We’re looking at Ali-Frazier. This is a massive fight with global appeal. It’s the fight you make. It’s the fight that has the most appeal. Khabib is the fight to make.”

First Khabib must defend his belt against Tony Ferguson at UFC 249 on April 18 at Barclays Center. McGregor will be looking to fight the winner or serve as a late replacement, but isn’t going to hold up his schedule. Predicting what’s next for Notorious is just about impossible.

Mayweather and Pacquiao tweeted posters of potential bouts with McGregor, and White said flatly, “Floyd is in our plans and we’re in Floyd’s plans this year. We’ll wind up doing something.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7fa2HRl3aI/

The venues are also limitless. White mentioned T-Mobile Arena, Madison Square Garden, the new Raiders Stadium, AT&T Stadium and venues in the United Kingdom as potential landing spots for McGregor’s next bout, while McGregor added Moscow and his native Ireland.

McGregor is a kid in his own candy store and his pleasant demeanor leading up to the Cerrone fight was a welcome contrast to the darkness that overshadowed his first fight with Nurmagomedov.

“Everything is a learning curve,” McGregor said. “You learn what’s right and what’s wrong.”

White thinks McGregor has found a balance with fame, fortune and the expectations that come with it.

“This fight did a lot of good things for Conor McGregor,” White said. “In the fight business, people forget easily and people are forgiving when you come back and try to get your life together and have a comeback story. I think that was the story for Conor McGregor. People jumped back on the McGregor bandwagon and became fans.”