Conor McGregor won the UFC featherweight title back in December of 2015 and the lightweight title in November of 2016. While a pair of fights against Nate Diaz happened between those moments and a superfight with Floyd Mayweather after, McGregor has never defended either of his belts. And although the UFC has been patient with their biggest superstar ever, there’s a lot of signs pointing towards them stripping him of a second belt sometime over UFC 220 weekend.
The UFC stripped McGregor of his featherweight title two weeks after he won the lightweight belt, mainly because one man holding championships in two weight classes is a good way to slow both divisions to a near halt. But they only pulled the trigger when they needed the featherweight belt back to prop up a PPV event that was missing a title fight. Now, they’re on the verge of doing the same thing with McGregor’s lightweight title.
The UFC has announced a press conference for Friday, Jan. 19. In attendance will be interim lightweight champ Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov, who are headlining UFC 223 on April 7 in Brooklyn, New York. The big question: Will they be competing for Ferguson’s interim belt, or will the UFC will announce that Conor has been stripped and Tony is now the undisputed champion?
No one seems to know for sure which way things will play out. McGregor has been completely silent about the situation while simultaneously keeping busy posting inane videos of bling and his fancy car fleet on social media. McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh has no idea either, and is following the story on the internet along with everyone else.
The White Knight. https://t.co/dEYPhaBZZ6
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) January 16, 2018
“I’m hearing this at the same time as everyone else,” Kavanagh said during a Facebook Live interview. “I see there is a press conference that will happen tomorrow. I think Tony and Khabib, or else just Khabib, is being interviewed about the fight that Dana announced in April, which was news to me as well. Maybe they’re going to say it at that. Is it an interim title fight or is it a belt fight? I don’t know.”
Dana White has been doing the rounds this week promoting UFC 220, and he hasn’t been shy to discuss the topic of taking the belt off McGregor because “no man can hold the sport hostage.” He claims McGregor is talking about a September return to the Octagon, which would be nearly two years since he won the title.
Stripping him seems like a no-brainer in that context. But it ignores the reality that McGregor is the UFC’s biggest star by a wide margin. At a time where UFC ratings and PPV numbers are tanking, McGregor propelled the promotion to the best financial year ever off the back of his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather.
So we have to wonder whether the UFC really will take a second belt off McGregor to give their UFC 223 headline fight a bit of extra legitimacy. They obviously want Conor to return in September — they’ve already gone ahead and reserved a stadium in Russia just in case Nurmagomedov beats Ferguson in Brooklyn. But after denying McGregor a stake in the UFC, dipping heavily into his pocket on the Mayweather fight, and taking two belts off him, we have to wonder whether McGregor will be interested in continuing to work with them.
