(Meanwhile, the Rafael Dos Anjos “1:06 TKO” shirt is nowhere to be seen.)
Following his 13 second knockout of Jose Aldo at UFC 194, the future of Conor McGregor oddly seemed more uncertain than ever. His coach, John Kavanagh, insisted that he didn’t want his fighter making the huge cut to 145 lbs. anymore, while McGregor himself stated that there was “no way in Hell” he would ever give up his featherweight belt should he seek out a title fight at lightweight next. With Frankie Edgar all but refusing to fight unless he receives a shot against McGregor at 145, the UFC was left with a bit of a mess on their hands to put it lightly.
But then, things started to sort themselves out on Wednesday’s edition of when Dana White told the UFC Tonight gang that “If anyone can hold two belts, it’s Conor McGregor.” With that ringing endorsement now out there in the universe, it was pretty much a given that McGregor would challenge lightweight champion Rafael Dos Anjos next, which recent reports now indicate will be the case.
Details after the jump.
As first reported by Bleacher Report’s Jeremy Botter (citing multiple sources), McGregor will in fact be moving up to lightweight next to take on Dos Anjos in the main event of UFC 197 on March 5th in Las Vegas.
And not only that, but Botter also confirmed that Holly Holm will be getting her wish to fight once more before rematching Ronda Rousey, squaring off against former title challenger Miesha Tate in UFC 197′s co-main event. Which, wow. It’s getting harder and harder to be a cynical, biased, UFC h8ing MMA blog these days when looking at the absolutely amazing run they’ve been on lately. (Luckily, there’s still their Nazi-esque outfitting policy to take shots at or we’d probably have to close up shop.)
It’s worth mentioning that Ariel Helwani hinted at “a couple of big fights” being looked at for March 5th back in December, only to be immediately shut down by Dana White for being “full of shit.” Here’s hoping that he has the balls to hit Dana with a zinger like this the next time they’re face-to-face.
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