McGregor McRetires? No. But let's talk about him anyway.

[Egg Shen]

if Pettis goes in and destroys Holloway i'd not be against Pettis/McGregor...likewise if Holloway beats Pettis how the hell does anyone deny Holloway a shot? he'll have the best streak of anyone in any division. Harsh on Aldo it may be.

 

145 is just going to have to get used to not having Conor around though, have the winner of Holloway/Pettis fight Aldo (both great fights) and have Aldo defend his interim title as if it's the real title, that's why they put the belt on him in the first place, he won that and did nothing but complain about not getting to fight McGregor. At this point Aldo is the defending champion, he just a belt that has 'interim' attached to it. McGregor will eventually vacate and if he ever does decide to go back to 145 he gets first crack at the Champion whilst still claming to be the undefeated Champion. The issue everyone has then though is that they all want that red-panty night crack against McGregor.

[JNLister]

Diaz makes sense for business and all, but I can't wait for the sporting explanation of how losing to the featherweight champion at welterweight earns you a tile shot against him at lightweight.

[Chunk]

 

I also agree that he has to defend the FW belt next or drop it. If he's dead set on holding both and wants to fight again before his baby is born then to me it makes sense to give him Pettis if Pettis beats Holloway.

 

 

Yeah, it makes perfect sense to completely overlook the current interim champion in favour of a guy who's fought in the weightclass once and who's current record is 1-3.

 

 

Fair point about the interim belt. I'd completely forgotten they even did that. That in itself shows how much of a draw Aldo is ...

[lambyUK]

The thing is Aldo has already actually come out and said he's willing to face Pettis for the interim title. Those guys just need to crack the fuck on as if that interim belt is the real belt. 

The rematch with Aldo at featherweight would seem a lot more lucrative if he goes out and say destroys Pettis (assuming Pettis can get past Hollaway which is a tough ask). Aldo really needs to rebuild himself more after the 13 second KO he suffered. 

 

Then as mentioned, have Ferguson face Nurmagomedov on a big Fox card as for me, neither of those guys have been given the platform to truly get their name out there. 

 

The problem there's actually too many options for Mcgregor.

Edited November 16, 2016 by lambyUK

[WyattSheepMask]

 

 

 

The 145 belt needs to be vacated. He's never defending it again. But it becomes a negotiating tactic I guess. If they strip him it'll piss him off and delay him getting back in the cage, which they can't afford. Howeverthe UFC can't let McGregor just piss about for ages with two belts and not making up his mind what he plans to do. Get him to the negotiating table quick and convince McGregor to vacate it in return for a bit of a payrise and everybody is happy.

Just reading what you posted there, and got me thinking. The Conor/Diaz first fight was at Welterweight, meaning Conor has fought at three different weights in the UFC. How many others have fought at three weights, the only one that springs to mind is BJ Penn (Middleweight when he won the title from Matt Hughes, challenged GSP for the Welterweight Belt and is a more Lightweight Champion)

Penn never fought at middleweight in the UFC. He fought at middleweight a couple times and insanely at catchweight against Lyoto Machida in K1, but never in the UFC.

 

He won the welterweight and lightweight belts in the UFC.

For some reason I got it in my mind that Matt Hughes was Middleweight Champion as opposed to Welterweight, which is were I'm obviously wrong.

Didn't realise that Florian had fought at some different weights either

[Egg Shen]

Diego Sanchez also fought at 4 weights.

[David]

The thing is Aldo has already actually come out and said he's willing to face Pettis for the interim title. Those guys just need to crack the fuck on as if that interim belt is the real belt. 

 

The rematch with Aldo at featherweight would seem a lot more lucrative if he goes out and say destroys Pettis (assuming Pettis can get past Hollaway which is a tough ask). Aldo really needs to rebuild himself more after the 13 second KO he suffered. 

 

Then as mentioned, have Ferguson face Nurmagomedov on a big Fox card as for me, neither of those guys have been given the platform to truly get their name out there. 

 

The problem there's actually too many options for Mcgregor.

 

I agree, they do have to carry on regardless. And for as long as Conor doesn't fight at 145lbs that's the best option.

 

Where it gets ridiculous is if McGregor comes back to 145lbs and defends the title against someone who isn't the interim champion. We'd have Aldo, who beat Edgar, sitting with an interim title, and Conor facing Pettis for the actual title?

 

I know the rules have generally been thrown out the window these days, but even that is pretty fucking mental by todays standards.

[thevestofdeanambrose]

I think whatever way we look at it 2017 is going to be an exciting year!

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

I agree, they do have to carry on regardless. And for as long as Conor doesn't fight at 145lbs that's the best option.

 

Where it gets ridiculous is if McGregor comes back to 145lbs and defends the title against someone who isn't the interim champion. We'd have Aldo, who beat Edgar, sitting with an interim title, and Conor facing Pettis for the actual title?

 

I know the rules have generally been thrown out the window these days, but even that is pretty fucking mental by todays standards.

 

 

Exactly, glad someone gets it. If Conor doesn't plan to fight Aldo, the interim champ, at 145 next, he shouldn't be champion, and I'm sticking to that. A year out of the division is pushing things, but if they want to make some concessions for someone as special as Conor, fine. Any more than that, and the precedent is for champions to be stripped when it gets to 18 months of inactivity. Cruz got stripped, granted it was injury, but that's all the more reason to fight at 145.

 

If Conor doesn't want to go back down to 145, that's fine, but the belt must go. Funny thing is, we're really just speculating. For all we know, they're making a deal behind closed doors for Conor to go back to featherweight. He's said that activity wouldn't be a problem in defending both belts, the stumbling block is the opponent being Aldo. Yes, Conor can't top 13 seconds (I mean, most likely, fuck knows with Conor) and Aldo would be a tough fight to take, but tough shit. Aldo is the interim champion. The belts must be unified. It'll still be big money, wherever they fight. Conor can't dictate that much, surely? Money can't overrule every facet of sport and genuine competition in the game. Conor won't be around forever. It sets a dangerous precedent if they start letting him call all the shots, then every fighter after him with a decent amount of success will start butting heads with management. That's what the whole UFC 200 debacle was all about.

[Porkchopcash]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XVeRk7piOnk&feature=youtu.be

 

Floyd on Mc

[wandshogun09]

Where it gets ridiculous is if McGregor comes back to 145lbs and defends the title against someone who isn't the interim champion. We'd have Aldo, who beat Edgar, sitting with an interim title, and Conor facing Pettis for the actual title?

 

I know the rules have generally been thrown out the window these days, but even that is pretty fucking mental by todays standards.

Hang on, wasn't it you who was arguing on here before that when Brock Lesnar was the champion he should've defended against Cain even though Carwin was the interim champ?

 

Don't get me wrong, I agree with what you're saying. It'd be a bit much if they just ignored the interim title and let McGregor choose someone else at 145 to fight. But I'm sure you were arguing for that to actually happen in the Brock/Cain/Carwin scenario.

 

I think if McGregor is going to defend his 145 belt it has to be against Aldo. End of. The Aldo vs Edgar fight was always supposed to either determine the number one contender for McGregor or if McGregor decided not to come back to 145, the interim would become the real belt. They can't just change that now because isn't interesting enough for McGregor. I know he's got more stroke than any other UFC fighter but they can't just bend over and let him do whatever he wants. This is one thing where they'll have to put their foot down and say 'it's either Aldo at 145 or you vacate the belt'. It's not fair on Aldo or the rest of the featherweight division to just let Conor keep the belt indefinitely.

 

I don't really see how people can defend it. Yes it's McGregor and he's a special case, he's not just any fighter. I'm a huge fan of him, he's one of my favourite fighters ever, but some of the worship he gets is a bit much sometimes. How far do you go with that? If he comes round and wants to fuck your girlfriend in front of you do you just go 'crack on, mate. Shall I tell her to get her red panties on?' I honestly think some McGregor fans would say that. I love that he's got some power and that finally there's a fighter who can tell the promoter what he wants and generally gets it. It's a good thing to see because usually the promoter holds 100% of the power and that's wrong. But at the same time, they can't just let him make the rules and put entire divisions on ice because he likes having a belt on each shoulder in media pictures and stuff. There's got to be a balance. I think some McGregor fans would be happy if the UFC just completely handed over the reigns to Conor and let him do what he wants. It sounds fun on paper. In reality it'd probably end up like when Vince Russo was left to run the asylum in WCW and didn't have Vince McMahon to filter out all the stupid shit that ended up on air.

[lambyUK]

I think you're getting ahead of yourself Wand as I don't think there's anyone out there who believes that it's fair to Mcgregor to keep the belt if he's not willing to defend it.

 

However the fact is Mcgregor is taking a break. The featherweight division has a belt there in the interim so those fuckers just need to plough on and once Mcgregor returns the answer will be there whether he's willing to drop down.

 

It's that simple really and it's only then will the UFC decide to strip him.

[wandshogun09]

I think you're getting ahead of yourself Wand as I don't think there's anyone out there who believes that it's fair to Mcgregor to keep the belt if he's not willing to defend it.

There's been talk of McGregor defending against Pettis if Pettis beats Holloway. How would that work? Pettis would be 2-0 at 145. Aldo's the interim champion.

 

However the fact is Mcgregor is taking a break. The featherweight division has a belt there in the interim so those fuckers just need to plough on and once Mcgregor returns the answer will be there whether he's willing to drop down.

 

It's that simple really and it's only then will the UFC decide to strip him.

It's up to the UFC to grab this situation by the bollocks though, not the rest of the fighters at 145. When Aldo was champ and didn't defend the title for a year I'm sure there were people on here saying he should be stripped of the belt. And he was inactive due to injury. McGregor is choosing to not defend the 145 belt. Before anyone pulls me up on that, yeah I know it made sense for him business wise to take the bigger fights against Diaz and Alvarez. I get that. But the fact is, he won the 145 belt last December. It's been nearly a year now and that belt hasn't been defended once.

 

The UFC need to strip him of that title soon if it's not going to be defended. And let McGregor continue as lightweight champ or going for 170 or heavyweight or whatever the fuck madness he's got cooking. He's held the two belts simultaneously now. That's in the history books and no-one can ever take it away. The history has been made already. But if he's not going back down what's the point him still holding onto that belt.

 

Why have I got a feeling that'll be his next demand? He'll want to challenge Woodley next at 170. So he'll want to keep the 145 AND 155 belts and hold ALL 3 titles aloft in the cage. He's barmy and I love it. But they've got to say enough's enough with this at some point. There's plenty of amazing fights to make with McGregor without it ballsing up two or three divisions' title pictures.

Edited November 17, 2016 by wandshogun09

[Egg Shen]

I dont really understand the issue everyone has.

 

Jose Aldo for all sense and purposes is the defending Featherweight Champion, they put him in place whilst Conor's out of the division. The division needs to move forward. If Conor comes back he fights Aldo (or whoever holds the belt) and they unify the two titles. If they strip Conor - and they should if he isn't planning on going back anytime soon - there won't be a vacant title, they'll just promote Aldo to full Champion and we're in the postion that we're really in already. I really dont see the issue.

 

The interim title was created prematurely in this case anyways, it's probably because the UFC knows that there's a good chance of Conor not going back. They didn't strip BJ Penn when he was 155lb champ and he challenged GSP at 170lb for example.

Edited November 17, 2016 by Egg Shen

[WyattSheepMask]

Just watched the fight from the weekend. Is there any reason why they couldn't have had both belts on the line if they had agreed to have the fight at 150lbs? Just seems a tad unfair that Conor got to go for being the first time two weight champion, but Alvarez wasn't given the same opportunity

Edited November 17, 2016 by WyattSheepMask