Seven fights in the UFC’s featherweight division, seven victories in the UFC’s featherweight division.
And yet Conor McGregor’s name is nowhere to be found in the most recent update of the UFC’s rankings.
We were all expecting Jose Aldo to replace McGregor in the champion’s position of the rankings after the UFC made the decision to strip ‘The Notorious’ of his 145lbs crown, awarded it to Aldo and put the interim title on the line in the main event of UFC 206.
ICYMI: #UFC206 shake-up could see Conor McGregor stripped of his featherweight title https://t.co/0ubBvSDFMf
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) November 26, 2016
But at no stage did McGregor come out and say that he was done with featherweight division, even after securing the lightweight title with his dismantling of Eddie Alvarez last month.
That makes it all the stranger to see him completely removed from the reckoning at 145lbs because Donald Cerrone, who competes in two weight classes, continues to be ranked at both lightweight and welterweight.
Cerrone last fought at lightweight last December, the week after McGregor last fought at featherweight, so it seems odd that one would continue to be ranked in two weight classes while the other would not.
The rankings are rightly not taken very seriously by the vast majority of fighters and it’s not likely to irritate McGregor whatsoever because he still finds himself in second spot on the pound-for-pound ranking list, just behind UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson.
In spite of many critics’ claims that the outspoken Irishman would not be able to make the featherweight limit again, McGregor continues to point to the fact that he never once missed weight and has cleaned out the whole weight class so perhaps he should remain in the rankings.
“I think it’s crazy the way they say I can’t get to featherweight anymore, or all these crazy things,” McGregor said ahead of UFC 205. “Like I ain’t the undisputed champion. Like I haven’t gone in there and taken out the whole division, as early as last year. Like, December of last year, that was.”
Michael Lundy joins Wooly for a wide-ranging discussion that starts with a chat about Ger Loughnane, dodgy transfers and Davy Fitzgerald’s training methods. Subscribe here on iTunes.
