The fact that Conor McGregor has yet to challenge for the UFC featherweight title certainly didn’t deter the silver-tongued Irishman from teasing the notion of bumping up to lightweight Saturday night.
Following his prophetic win over seasoned vet Dustin Poirier at UFC 178, the surging McGregor opened up on his future plans to jump from 145 pounds to 155 during a post-fight media scrum with Damon Martin of Fox Sports.
I don’t like making this weight. I like fighting at lightweight. I fought at lightweight many times in my career. I’m fast at lightweight. I come in refreshed at lightweight. It’s a different camp. It’s a different buildup when I’m fighting at lightweight than it is fighting at featherweight. I’m definitely open to fighting at lightweight no doubt.
McGregor, Poirier and Jeremy Stephens each stand 5’9″ and represent the tallest fighters in the top 10 of the UFC’s featherweight rankings. No fighter in the top five of the featherweight division stands over 5’8″.
At 74 inches, McGregor also holds the longest reach of the UFC’s 15 ranked featherweights.
McGregor, who last competed at lightweight in December 2012, talked about the benefits of bumping up to 155.
Would your spirit not be different if you go into a steakhouse with your team and they’re ordering like 64-ounce ribeyes, rare ribeyes, marbled and delicious. And it’s cooked on a stone, they bring it on a stone so it’s not even cooked and the stone is sizzling and you put butter on it and it sizzles and cooks it, and then I show up: ‘Can I have chicken and can I have some salmon and some spinach, please?’ That’s what I’m talking about. I want to show up at these places two weeks out from the fight and be like, ‘Give me the 64-ounce ribeye, some sweet potato mash, and I’ll also have some dessert.’
The idea of making the move to 155 at some point doesn’t seem that far-fetched, especially after UFC President Dana White said the following regarding McGregor on the Fox Sports 1 post-fight show (per MMA Junkie):
“Conor McGregor is the real deal. He is legit. He is a force that I have never seen ever. Bigger than Brock Lesnar when he was here. Bigger than any of the fighters we’ve ever had. Yes, (he’s bigger than Georges St-Pierre). I’ve never seen anything like this.”
The twice-beaten McGregor has reeled off 12 straight victories since getting submitted by journeyman Joseph Duffy (arm-triangle choke) at Cage Warriors Fighting Championships 39 in November 2010. During that span, the 26-year-old won 10 times via KO/TKO and once by submission.
Cagey Hawaiian Max Holloway marked the only fighter to go the distance with McGregor during his 12-fight winning streak.
Although he tore his ACL against Holloway, McGregor still managed to earn a unanimous decision in just his second fight with the promotion at UFC Fight Night 26 in August 2013.
With his first-round TKO of Poirier, who was ranked fifth before the bout, McGregor jumped from No. 9 to No. 5 in the UFC’s featherweight rankings.
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