Anybody who thinks that UFC was willing to take a risk and let Conor to lose on his career dividing match when they can still milk the money is just laughable. Conor himself said he's going to make somewhat 80m, yet UFC is going to make even a bigger amount from it and if there's such a money on the line, nobody could have afforded to have Conor lose to a nearly 37 year old guy who's 3 matches losing streak and slowly dwindling towards end of his career. Atleast Cerrone made the 10x paycheck he has ever made and has literally zero complaints on his way to the bank while riding into the sunset. There's a plan for Conor to have 2-3 matches before big showdown. A loss would have meant literally career end for Conor and UFC would lose hundreds of millions dollars on the way and it just doesn't make sense for anybody so let's see who's next on the line, to offer himself to a fight against Conor and making career money while accepting the loss.