The belt may not have been the gold standard, but the fight certainly was.
After Daniel Cormier’s injury forced the cancellation of the original UFC 206 main event, UFC brass filled the void with a little sleight of hand. They stripped Conor McGregor of his featherweight title—he’s got another one, right?—and handed it to Jose Aldo.
But wait, you say. What is this dark magic, and how is it relevant to my daily life or this UFC 206 card, given that neither of those fighters are appearing there?
Because they had to take McGregor‘s belt to make Aldo, who was the interim champ, the lineal champ so they could make the new main event, Max Holloway vs. Anthony Pettis, a battle for the newly available interim title.
So now that it’s been explained, perhaps you can understand why the interim featherweight title is not what you might call the most coveted title in sports.
Whatever luster the belt lost in the shuffle shouldn’t carry over to the battle between Holloway and Pettis, the former on a nine-fight win streak and the latter the ex-champ at lightweight. Can they restore some shine to this title?
The rest of the card wasn’t bad, either. In the co-main event, Donald Cerrone and Matt Brown fought. Now you know that was a good scrap. Don’t forget about a certain Korean Superboy, either.
As always, the final stat lines only reveal so much. Here are the real winners and losers from UFC 206.
Full card results appear on the final slide.