RIO DE JANEIRO — A former two-division champion in Europe, Conor McGregor has the same goal for his career in the UFC.
“The Notorious,” who battles Jose Aldo for the UFC featherweight championship on July 11 in Las Vegas, also has recently crowned 155-pound champion Rafael dos Anjos as a target.
“We will take Aldo and we will take dos Anjos, without a problem,” McGregor said during a media day on Tuesday. “The featherweights must beg now. They must beg for pardon, beg for forgiveness. If that’s the case, if they apologize and beg, I’ll leave the division. I won’t terrorize them anymore. They can have their division back. They can go back to being on the prelims and I’ll go to the lightweight division.”
During a media scrum in Brazil a week before, dos Anjos talked about the possibility of facing McGregor in the future.
“What does he want with me?” dos Anjos asked with a laugh. “He has a big opponent in front of him with Aldo. Tell him to stay of featherweight because here (at 155 pounds) is going to be tough for him.”
Sidelined with a knee and nose injury, dos Anjos expects to return to the Octagon around September against the winner of Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Donald Cerrone, scheduled for UFC 187 on May 23.