With Conor McGregor currently booked in a rematch with Nate Diaz in the main event of July’s UFC 200, many MMA fans are wondering if and when the ‘Notorious’ Irishman will defend the featherweight title he won from longtime champ Jose Aldo at UFC 194 last December.
It’s not the strap has been on the shelf for that long, as it was last contested just under four months ago, but when McGregor shockingly lost a short-notice bout to in the main event of March’s UFC 196, the fighting future of the UFC’s biggest star got a bit muddied. He’s apparently hell-bent on avenging the loss, and while that’s understandable, it’s also impossible to wonder if he’ll ever be able to make the draining weight cut down to 145 again.
McGregor’s manager Audie Attar is here to tell us that that won’t be a concern, however, as he spoke up to Submission Radio that the champion will not vacate the145-pound belt and will most definitely defend it at some point:
“No, that would have happened. That would have already happened. Cause you know, that’s something that Conor was adamant about. He wants to keep his belt, he’s gonna defend it, and at the end of the day, if he was gonna vacate, it would have already happened.”
Going into detail about McGregor’s highly discussed weight cut, Attar affirmed that it was not as bad as many have made it out to be despite the fact that he often looks like a drawn out skeletal version of himself at weigh-ins:
“I’ve never seen him, per se, pass out and do some things that are unhealthy. Even in terms of how he gets down, right? He does it all natural and just by a lot of hard work and a lot of discipline. So at the end of the day, I want him to feel comfortable. It seems like he liked not cutting weight, right?
“At the end of the day, I’ve never seen it [Conor’s weight cut] to be that extreme as you were kind of making it out to be. I do know that per his reaction for not cutting weight, I’d rather him do what he’s more happier to do as an athlete.”
We never have seen McGregor pass out from a weight cut, no, but again, it’s tough to envision him putting his body through the absolute rollercoaster of fighting at 168 pounds for his welterweight rematch and then cutting all the way down to 145 for his next fight.
And even if he does, the likely target for his next 145-pound defense would be the UFC’s blockbuster Madison Square Garden debut tentatively slated for late this year, meaning that the real featherweight strap will have been on the shelf for close to a year.
Aldo will meet Franke Edgar for the interim title at UFC 200 to decide McGregor’s next rightful challenger. Are you buying McGregor’s manager statement that he will definitely be there to face either one in his next fight?
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