While it hasn’t been officially announced, all signs point to the UFC stripping Conor McGregor of his lightweight title in the next few days. UFC president Dana White revealed the promotion was ‘absolutely’ prepared to do it if McGregor stuck to his plan of returning in September of 2018, and now he’s explained why during an appearance on the Toucher and Rich radio show.
“He can’t hold up the title, can’t hold up the whole division,” White said. “There’s a lot of guys that I have to deal with every day that aren’t worth the aggravation. This kid is worth the aggravation and I have so much respect for him, what he’s accomplished, what he’s done. If he wants to ride off into the sunset with his money for the rest of his life, I don’t blame him. And if he wants to come back and fight, we’ll get him back in. He just can’t hold the division hostage.”
White was blunt when asked what the best solution to the McGregor conundrum was.
“You take the belt,” he said. “In any sport, the NBA, the NFL, hockey, whatever it may be. No one guy can hold the whole sport hostage. It just doesn’t happen. When Conor was getting ready for this Mayweather fight, I was already making plans for Conor to never come back. The company and the business goes on, and there will be other stars. The NBA didn’t roll it up and pack it up when Jordan left. And they won’t when LeBron goes either. The list goes on and on.”
White also confirmed that Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov would be fighting for the undisputed lightweight title at UFC 223 in Brooklyn on April 7th. He also talked up a potential future fight between McGregor and Nurmagomedov.
“People right now would love to see Conor McGregor vs. Khabib the Russian,” he said. “And that would be a massive fight. I could do that fight in the United States and that would be big. And I could do that fight in Russia, there isn’t a stadium big enough in the country for that fight.”
“Everybody has been waiting to see a fight with him and Conor. People believe that this guy will maul Conor McGregor. But that’s what people always believe about Conor. Conor has gone into every fight that he’s ever fought in the UFC, even the last fight with Eddie Alvarez, Joe Rogan picked Eddie to win that fight. And everybody else did, and Conor made it look easy.”
Those comments and the fact that the UFC has already gone ahead and booked a stadium in Russia for September tell you which way they’d like the Tony vs. Khabib fight in April to go. But we’ll see how it all plays out. The whole process starts rolling this Saturday January 20th at UFC 220, where heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic defends his belt against up and coming knockout artist Francis Ngannou. That’s also where it’s expected the UFC will announce McGregor getting stripped and Tony Ferguson being elevated to full champ.
Then we’ll just have to wait and see what McGregor’s reaction to it all is.
