SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
October - 2016
31
McGregor won. Again.
In this case, the battle was over McGregor
dropping the UFC featherweight title.
The promotion wanted him to relinquish
the belt to free up a division it could then
return to promoting. With apologies to
the very skilled Jose Aldo, no one is buy-
ing him as the real champ at the mo-
ment, not less than a year removed from
having his title taken by a lightening-fast
KO at the hands of McGregor. With Mys-
tic Mac taking 2016 off from 145lbs to
pursue welterweight fights with Nate
Diaz and now the 155lb title, the UFC
can be forgiven for being frustrated with
the hold up of featherweight. That’s one
less champ to promote, even if Aldo has
a belt around his waist. Not to mention
that fact that Aldo was never much of
a draw. Yet with the right promotion,
someone like Max Holloway, on an in-
sane nine-fight win streak, could be.
Except why feed Holloway to Aldo, un-
less the real title was on the line?
Well, that’s not happening any time
soon, as McGregor has been approved
to hold on to the featherweight title
just a little longer, while he challengers
for lightweight gold in New York. Sorry,
Jose. Sorry Max.
That’s only part of it. The UFC has been
very aware that it needs to keep Mc-
Gregor in check, lest he overshadow the
company. For years, that was something
the UFC was loathe to let happen. That
said, the very emergence of McGregor
— and Ronda Rousey — is in part while
the UFC is valued at 4.2 billion. Still, the
UFC wanted to retain some form of con-
trol over McGregor. So they insisted he
drop his featherweight title prior to mov-
ing up to challenge for the lightweight
strap.
As noted, they failed. Conor McGregor
said “beg me.” They begged. Or at least
gave him what he wanted.
There is some fairness in this. Ultimate-
ly, McGregor was granted a shot at the
lightweight title nearly a year ago. He
was ready and able to face then-champ
Rafael dos Anjos at UFC 196, until dos
Anjos was injured. McGregor — never
one to turn down a fight — accepted a
welterweight bout against Nate Diaz in-
stead. He lost, choked out in the second
round. His biggest crime subsequent to
that might have been pride: he insisted
on a rematch with Diaz at welterweight.
Originally scheduled for UFC 200, it was
pushed back to 202 when McGregor
blew off a press conference.
Yet in the end he won the rematch, cor-
rected the narrative, and put himself back
where he was prior to UFC 196. Do we
fault McGregor for holding up the feath-
erweight division while trying to avenge
the loss to Diaz? Only in part. The man
is a fighter; fighters hate losing. Nothing
surprising there. That the UFC allowed it
to happen means they shoulder as much
as, if not more of, the blame. And the
fights — both of them — were extreme-
ly successful.
