This weekend’s UFC 222 card was once headlined by a featherweight title fight between Frankie Edgar and Max Holloway, but after Holloway pulled out injured, the card was in shambles. According to Conor McGregor and his camp, he tried to save the day, but Frankie Edgar’s manager Ali Abdelaziz is shooting that down and claiming that McGregor went too far, asking for the creation of a 165-pound belt to be created for his return.
When conor called the ufc he asked them create a 165lb belt. He thinks @danawhite was born yesterday. This is fact. Waiting for response Mr. Helwani. #BeefIsReal
— Ali Abdelaziz (@AliAbdelaziz00) February 22, 2018
Meanwhile, McGregor’s teammate and pal Artem Lobov told the MMA Hour (h/t BloodyElbow) that the fight was “100 percent real” and “very, very close” to getting made.
“Conor was ready to go, we were gathering the troops already, we were ready to go… We were planning what we were going to do. We were just going to fly out to Vegas straight away to do a short little camp. Plans were in place and everything. Everything was ready to go. Conor wanted to fight. I was talking to him the whole time and he was ready to go and show the world what he can do.”
Supposedly, the UFC didn’t want to make the fight on just a few weeks of notice because it wouldn’t be able to properly promote the event. So now we have Cris Cyborg vs. another undersized opponent and Edgar taking on the undefeated Brian Ortega, which is fine, but it’s no heroic, short-notice return to the Octagon for McGregor, which would’ve been cool. Even if it was for a nonsensical belt that was manifested for the star on a whim.
However, Frankie Edgar is saying that he didn’t hear anything about the fight being made until McGregor commented on it on Twitter, nor does he think there would be a 165 belt. “I mean, come on, there is no 165-pound belt,” he said to Ariel Helwani.
It would be nice if there was, say, a 163-pound belt or something, and a shakeup of the weight classes in general (and McGregor is the kind of guy who could pull that off), but that would require Frankie Edgar to eat a bunch of New York pizza to make that weight.
(Via BloodyElbow/MMA Fighting)
