He may no longer be technically considered the UFC featherweight champion but Conor McGregor is still strolling around with a belt on each shoulder.
‘The Notorious’ recently became the first fighter in UFC history to hold a title in two separate weight classes simultaneously but that glorious time as, what he likes to call, “the motherfucking champ champ” was short-lived.
Less than a fortnight after McGregor took former 155lbs champ Eddie Alvarez apart in the main event of UFC 205, the UFC’s plans to strip the Irishman of his featherweight title emerged.
A shake-up at 145lbs saw Jose Aldo reinstated as official champion while it was decided that Anthony Pettis and Max Holloway would fight with the interim title on the line in UFC 206’s headliner.
“I’m still the two-weight world champion,” McGregor insisted at an event in Belfast last week while UFC president Dana White claimed that it “was Conor’s decision” to relinquish his world title.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNo-WJ7hAtS/?taken-by=thenotoriousmma&hl=en
McGregor certainly seems to be playing hardball with his employers and sent a pretty clear message to the UFC on Monday, when he posted a video of himself boarding a jet with his two belts, suggesting that he’s not going to part ways with either hard-earned strap without a fight.
It should be noted that the UFC had no intention of taking away a physical belt as fighters are typically allowed keep a belt after each championship victory but the fact that McGregor is proudly carrying two around with him is enough to send a clear message to the UFC that he still considers himself a two-weight world champion.
He would have known all along that the organisation was going to look for him to vacate one title after his UFC 205 victory as White had made no secret of that desire in the lead-up to the historic event in New York.
And the UFC would appear to be playing a similarly aggressive game as they removed their most reliable cash-cow from the featherweight rankings last week.
Well that's odd https://t.co/WveNwxKKJf
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) August 10, 2016
But we should not be surprised by McGregor’s reluctance to allow one of his titles to be ripped away as he has pushed against those plans since the very first mention of the UFC’s hopes to strip him.
“I’m gonna wrap one on one shoulder and I’m gonna wrap the other one on the other shoulder, and they’re gonna need a fucking army to come take them belts off me,” McGregor said at a press conference to promote UFC 205.
And it looks like he’s sticking to his guns on that.
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