Conor McGregor steamed through Eddie Alvarez to cooly collect the lightweight title at UFC 205. The McGregor v Mayweather debacle has, however, put what should be talk of a potential fight between the champion and the #1 lightweight contender in the shade.
There is also the small matter of the champ’s [Conor McGregor] hiatus as he takes time out prior to the birth of his first child.
Nurmagomedov and Ferguson is a fight that has been prospected, scheduled, and then cancelled numerous times in the past, due to various reasons. UFC 209’s joint headliner will be for an interim belt, which is essentially a golden ticket to a shot at the title. With everything finally agreed, we can now look forward to (at least a provisional) showdown between the #1 & #2 ranked fighters in the 155 pound division.
Las Vegas hosted a media scrum on Thursday to promote UFC 209, and Ferguson touched upon various subjects with ESPN, including the dispute in contractual agreements publicized by Dana White earlier this month.
“It’s business I understand that. But I out-performed my contract and we had a talk, management came to an agreement and now we’re fighting. I don’t like to talk too much business. That’s for the management and that kind of person. I like to do my business inside the octagon. I feel like you guys are pretty familiar with that.”
Ferguson appears content in the particulars for the fight, aside from the fact that he feels the upcoming bout with the unbeaten Russian should be for the actual title. El Cucuy also accused McGregor of “running” from his championship responsibilities:
“I have nine fights in a row win streak. Khabib has eight fights in a row. This is the first time you guys are ever gonna see this inside the octagon. This is for an interim title. It should be for the real shit. Am I a little pissed about it? Yeah. Is Conor gonna defend his belt, that little bitch? Probably not. He’s gonna run. Go ahead. Go run. Go try to box. You’ll get your ass kicked too. And when you’re ready to come back, they’re gonna strip your belt and at 155, I’m gonna be holding it and you’re gonna be like, ‘Oh I want my belt back’ and this and that. I don’t give a shit. The fight, the real fight, is between Conor? No. Conor, sorry buddy. The fight’s between Khabib and Ferguson.”
Conor McGregor has held belts in two different weight classes, and is yet to defend either. If “The Notorious” does come back to action as the champion in September 2017, as speculated, then this particular statistic means that he will have gone almost 2 years as a belt holder without one single title defence.
