Conor McGregor has won four titles in his time as an MMA fighter. He’s made history as the Cage Warriors featherweight and lightweight champion before making the jump to the UFC, and then he was the UFC featherweight champ and lightweight champ at the same time, becoming the first person to hold two belts in two weight classes at the same time in the UFC. Then he was stripped for the featherweight belt for not defending.
Now, according to BJPenn.com, sources in the Ferguson camp have said that McGregor will be stripped of his UFC lightweight title he won in November of 2016 at UFC 205, and Khabib Nurmagomedov will fight Tony Ferguson for the belt this April at UFC 223. This backs up an early report from a Russian website stating that Khabib would be fighting for the lightweight title this April.
Breaking! I have confirmed with sources that Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov will fight for the undisputed UFC lightweight title at #UFC223 in Brooklyn. The bout will be made official later this week. McGregor will be stripped of his title. The bout was 1st reported by TASS
— Chris Taylor (@CTaylor_96) January 16, 2018
Here’s how this will all work out: Conor McGregor will be stripped, making interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson the undisputed lightweight champ. Khabib and Tony will then battle it out in Brooklyn this April, roughly 14 months after the last time they were booked to fight (they’ve signed the papers to fight each other three times). Both men are at the top of their game, extremely dangerous and could give McGregor a run for his money. If only he would’ve defended against them. A win over Khabib and/or Tony and McGregor’s legacy is nearly untouchable. Now, there are more question marks.
According to the report, the official announcement will come next week. Maybe McGregor will stop this and set up a defense at the 11th hour, or maybe he’ll go back to spending his fortune he made fighting Floyd Mayweather.
But, Ariel Helwani is saying that this is not a done deal:
The site @bjpenndotcom is reporting that Ferguson vs. Khabib for the official belt is a done deal for April 7 in Brooklyn. I asked Khabib’s manager @AliAbdelaziz00 to confirm and he vehemently said there is no deal in place at this time for that fight. (cont’d)
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) January 16, 2018
Khabib has said that he’ll only fight for the lightweight title, not the interim belt, and there’s still plenty of time for this to go sideways, but Ferguson’s camp has proved to be a reliable source of information in years past, breaking his Rafael dos Anjos fight, and the fact that Khabib Nurmagomedov was an extremely late scratch at UFC 209 last year.
Dana White has also made it clear that waiting any longer for a McGregor defense will not be acceptable.
Dana White tells FS1 that UFC is working on Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov after Conor McGregor telling him he may not fight until September. Would McGregor be stripped? "Absolutely," he says.
— Mike Bohn (@MikeBohn) January 15, 2018
So, Conor McGregor is making history once again if he becomes the first person stripped of titles in multiple weight classes.
(Via BJPenn)
