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Less than an hour after Conor McGregor was crowned the undisputed UFC featherweight champion, the sport erupted with discussion of the Irishman abandoning the division to chase another title.
In interviews leading up to yesterday’s championship unification bout, McGregor forecasted an easy victory. But even he couldn’t have predicted that the bout against long-reigning champ Jose Aldo would be over after just 13 seconds.
That’s precisely what happened on Sunday inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, as McGregor followed through on his promise to hand Aldo his first defeat in over a decade.
McGregor, who improved his UFC record to 7-0 with six knockouts, has proven to be capable of selling big money fights and has a bunch of marketable bouts on the table, but according to UFC president Dana White, the outspoken champion could desert the featherweight class to chase bigger and better opportunities.
“(McGregor’s coach) John Kavanagh said in the Octagon he’ll never make 145 (pounds) again,” White told a panel of experts on the Fox Sports post-fight reaction show. “(Kavanagh) said, ‘I don’t want him making that weight again. It’s not good for him.”
The long-time fight promoter added an additional incentive for McGregor to head ten pounds north to the lightweight division, offering him a championship fight upon arrival in the weight class.
“I’d bring him straight in for a title shot. They’ve been talking about going to 155 (pounds), but you never know with Conor.” White added.
Dave Sholler, the UFC’s Vice President of Public Relations, also confirmed the company’s rough plan to offer McGregor the winner of next weekend’s UFC lightweight title bout between Rafael dos Anjos and Donald Cerrone.
For McGregor, who has long discussed his aspirations of becoming a two-division UFC champ, that must’ve been music to his ears.
The caveat that Sholler threw in didn’t thrill the champion, however. The UFC rep added that to challenge for the 155-pound title, McGregor would have to relinquish his current championship.
Unsurprisingly, ‘The Notorious’ McGregor objected. “I’ll tell you one thing that won’t be happening. If I go up to that lightweight division there’s no way in hell that I’m vacating my belt,” he said while hosting a solo press conference after the fights. “That’s not happening. There’ll be a belt on one shoulder and a belt on the other shoulder.”
The only other time the UFC has allowed a champion to keep his title and pursue another was in 2009 when Hawaii’s BJ Penn took the lightweight crown into a welterweight championship match against Georges St. Pierre.
While it was a tremendous box office success, drawing a $4.2 million gate and selling over 900,000 units on pay-per-view, it had a major ripple effect, essentially forcing the UFC to hit the pause button on their two most talent-rich weight classes.
At the presser, McGregor argued that with his frantic fight schedule, history wouldn’t repeat itself. “I understand why previously they would have fighters (vacate the title) because many fighters don’t fight as frequently as I do,” he said.
“I’m busy, I stay active, I’m fresh. So when I go up and take that lightweight belt I will still be the featherweight champion also. I will be a dual-weight champion.”
McGregor’s blueprint to reign as champion in two weight classes is ambitious, to say the very least. And giving the Straight Blast Gym Ireland prodigy the opportunity to win both titles would fly in the face of the UFC’s tried-and-true promotional formula.
The company likes to advertise their champions as invincible, dominant and unstoppable – right until they’re not.
Allowing a champion like McGregor to jump up a weight class and fight for another title is a major roll of the dice with potentially disastrous consequences for the UFC and their pay-per-view king.
The most obvious one is that the five-foot-nine, 145-pound titlist could suffer his first UFC defeat.
And the other outcome – that McGregor fulfils his promise of becoming a dual-division champion – comes with a completely different set of problems.
McGregor revealed that after his stunning victory he met with UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta to toast his victory with a glass of expensive whiskey, and planned to meet with UFC decision makers for food and celebratory drinks later in the night.
Whether it was during that catch-up or if it takes place in the future closed-doors meeting, I am willing to bet the big wigs within the UFC will try to twist McGregor’s arm.
The two best results for the UFC are for McGregor to either vacate his freshly-won featherweight crown and bulk up to the heavier weight class or stick around to defend the title, likely against former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.
They aren’t necessarily the perfect outcomes for McGregor, though. And he isn’t a man easily swayed.