UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor has his fair share of haters due to the fact he’s never defended a UFC title. So much so, in fact, that, with his MMA return currently uncertain, “The Notorious” has been labeled a ‘chicken’ by a large contingent of the MMA fanbase. On the sidelines enjoying the spoils of his […]
UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor has his fair share of haters due to the fact he’s never defended a UFC title.
So much so, in fact, that, with his MMA return currently uncertain, “The Notorious” has been labeled a ‘chicken’ by a large contingent of the MMA fanbase.
On the sidelines enjoying the spoils of his $100 million payday to box Floyd Mayweather last August, McGregor’s latest venture is going to garner a lot of unfavorable comparisons.
This morning (Mon., March 5, 2017) Burger King debuted a new commercial for their spicy chicken sandwich starring McGregor living it up on a plane. Perhaps not the best choice of food item for a champion who is tirelessly accused of being scared to defend his belt, but the pay was assuredly high.
Are you a fan of McGregor becoming a mouthpiece for Burger King? Check out the spot right here:
Max Holloway is back with another jab at absent UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor. Last week “The Notorious” posted on Instagram that he was definitely returning to MMA, and had even offered to replace Holloway and fight Frankie Edgar in the main event of this weekend’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena […]
Max Holloway is back with another jab at absent UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor.
Last week “The Notorious” posted on Instagram that he was definitely returning to MMA, and had even offered to replace Holloway and fight Frankie Edgar in the main event of this weekend’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
However, the bout never materialized due to the UFC supposedly not having enough time to promote the event, and that left Edgar’s manager Ali Abdel-Aziz and coach Mark Henry blasting the claims in their own respective social media tirades.
Andel-Aziz claimed McGregor did truly offer to fight at UFC 222 but only if he could compete for a newly-created 165-pound belt, a division that has never been in the UFC.
Edgar soon revealed that McGregor’s post was the first he had heard about it, offering his own doubts that it was ever a realistic possibility considering he hadn’t heard from his employers about the potentially massive fight. But McGregor’s longtime training partner and friend Artem Lobov insisted that their camp was preparing to train and that the fight was “very, very close.”
“The Russian Hammer” reiterated that stance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani on Monday, but the featherweight champ isn’t buying it whatsoever. After recently trolling McGregor with a photo of him being stopped by Floyd Mayweather after “The Notorious” had posted a photo of their 2013 match-up where he defeated a young Holloway, “Blessed” fired back with another comedic response.
Although he’s injured and unable to compete this weekend, Holloway blasted McGregor’s claims that he would fill in on the card by offering a laughable scenario where he would amputate his leg in order to fight 125-pound champion Demetrious ‘Mighty Mouse’ Johnson for a newly-created 115-pound belt:
One more update @arielhelwani. After I was pulled from 222, I offered to amputate my leg and fight for a 115lb belt against DJ. It was very very close. Plans were in place. But I was told there wasn’t enough time. Stay blessed, The DEFENDING Champ (no need TM what he can't claim) https://t.co/iFCB2NcHFA
Solid work from “Blessed,” who was many fans and media members’ pick for 2017’s “Fighter of the Year” after two impressive third-round stoppages of all-time great Jose Aldo.
He no doubt wants a rematch with McGregor, and with stinging social media barbs like this, he could have an outside shot at getting one.
Of course, the infamous Irishman will have to commit to returning first, and even though he appeared to do just that on social media, nothing is close to confirmed.
UFC 222, meanwhile, will go forward with a short-notice women’s featherweight title fight between Cris Cyborg and Yana Kunitskaya from Las Vegas this weekend.
Last week, absent UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor ‘confirmed’ his MMA return with the mere flick of an Instagram post before taking it a step further and claiming he even offered to fill in for featherweight champ Max Holloway against Frankie Edgar at this weekend’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from Las Vegas. Even […]
Last week, absent UFC lightweight champ Conor McGregor ‘confirmed’ his MMA return with the mere flick of an Instagram post before taking it a step further and claiming he even offered to fill in for featherweight champ Max Holloway against Frankie Edgar at this weekend’s (Sat., March 3, 2018) UFC 222 from Las Vegas.
Even though the potentially monstrous comeback fight never came close to materializing due to the UFC saying they didn’t have enough time to capitalize, the claim understandably set a big news-starved MMA world (with much of it due to ‘The Notorious” hiatus) afire for at least one night.
Both Edgar’s manager Ali Abdel-Aziz and boxing coach Mark Henry were quick to fire back at McGregor with seething responses to the outlandish news, but “The Answer” stayed relatively mum on the dream match-up. Until now, that is, as the former lightweight champ spoke up about the never-to-be fight to Ariel Helwani on today’s episode of The MMA Hour. The New Jersey ironman said he awoke to see rumors of it online, but that was the fist he had heard of it:
“I woke up from a nap and I saw it on Twitter. That’s the first I heard of it.”
Apparently, word later arrived that McGregor did offer to fight at UFC 222, but wanted it to be for a never-before-contested 165-pound belt, something Edgar called ridiculous considering McGregor was yet to defend either his lightweight or featherweight belt:
“I mean, come on, there is no 165-pound belt. You know what I’m saying? I want to fight on the moon. You know what I mean? Come on.
“He doesn’t want to defend his own belt. What, he wants to fight me? I mean, hey, that’d be great. That’d be great for me. Let’s be real. I’m not scared to fight anybody. Come on, I’ve been doing this too long to be scared to fight anybody. I mean, if anything, that would be very good for me, to fight Conor McGregor.”
Mandatory Credit: Steve Flynn-USA TODAY Sports
And while Edgar would love to face McGregor and the payday he brings in the Octagon, he didn’t believe it was close to true because Dana White didn’t call him – even if he would fight McGregor at any weight:
“I would’ve fought him in any weight class, to be honest with you.
“I think if it was real, Dana would’ve called me personally. He’s done it before. With something like that, Dana would’ve called me personally, and he didn’t, so I have to think that it wasn’t real.”
To “The Answer” – and many others – McGregor was simply keeping his name in the news, something he does perhaps better than any fighter other than his forever-rival Floyd Mayweather.
With that taken into consideration, Edgar said he wouldn’t let the Irishman get him sidetracked. He has his hands full with Ortega – a hungry, rising contender who is active in the UFC unlike ‘The Notorious’:
“I don’t know, I think Conor’s just being Conor, man. He’s the best at it, right? He’s the best at making news and staying relevant. I don’t mean relevant, he’s the most popular guy in our sport, this and that, but staying in the news cycle. He does it better than anybody, except maybe Floyd Mayweather.
“I’m not surprised by it, and I’m not getting sidetracked by it because it doesn’t matter,” Edgar added. “It’s non-news to me. Because the news is I’m fighting a guy who fights in the UFC right now, Brian Ortega.”
Despite the drama, Edgar doesn’t believe he and McGregor will ever fight because of the opportunities they’ve had to do so when McGregor was actually at featherweight and it didn’t happen.
So ‘The Answer’ put the talk about the unlikely payday with McGregor aside because he is aware of the dangerous challenge he has waiting in only five days:
“If we’re going to fight, we’ll fight. But I doubt it,” Edgar said. “I really don’t think we’ll ever cross paths. I really don’t. … We’ve had many times it could’ve been real, and it just never materialized. And if it didn’t materialize then, I just don’t see why would it happen now.
“I’m putting it totally aside, because it’s easy with this whole Conor news and Max, it’s easy to get sidetracked and think about Max, think about Conor,” Edgar said. “I’ve got to focus on Ortega, man. It’s a dangerous fight. Everyone says, ‘Oh, it’s a risky fight,’ and they’re right. I’m putting a lot of the line and that’s my focus.”
Conor McGregor says he will return to MMA. With the lightweight champion in negotiations to fight twice in 2018 while Dana White insisted McGregor ‘understood why he was being stripped’ of the 155-pound title, ‘The Notorious’ took to his own personal Instagram account to confirm he will be back, period, because he’s the best. His return […]
His return was apparently closer than we all thought too, as he offered to fill in for Max Holloway at March 3’s UFC 222, but the UFC couldn’t raise the funds to pay him his now-astronomical asking price:
“I am fighting again. Period. I am the best at this.
I put my name forward to step in at UFC 222 to face Frankie Edgar when Max Holloway pulled out, but I was told there wasn’t enough time to generate the money that the UFC would need.
I was excited about bouncing in last minute and taking out the final featherweight, without all the rest of the stuff that comes with this game. Please respect the insane amount of work outside the fight game that I have put in.
On top of the fighting.
I am here.
It is on them to come and get me. Because I am here.
So it appears to be a matter of cold, hard cash – as always – and the word is the UFC and McGregor are getting closer and closer on agreeing to terms for his return.
He may or may not be stripped of his title, but the consensus has him facing the winner of UFC 223’s Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov title fight.
That is, unless Floyd Mayweather actually makes his way to the UFC.
Dana White insisted Conor McGregor ‘understands the decision to strip him’ of his lightweight title, but some further news has surfaced suggesting that may be a moot point. According to Dave Meltzer of F4Wonline.com (via Bloody Elbow), McGregor is in negotiations to return for not only one UFC fight in 2018 but two: “The word is […]
Dana White insisted Conor McGregor ‘understands the decision to strip him’ of his lightweight title, but some further news has surfaced suggesting that may be a moot point.
According to Dave Meltzer of F4Wonline.com (via Bloody Elbow), McGregor is in negotiations to return for not only one UFC fight in 2018 but two:
“The word is that negotiations with Conor McGregor are going well. No deal to return has been inked but they are said to be not so far apart and are in talks about him doing two fights in 2018.”
A ton of heat has recently surfaced about McGregor possibly returning to face Floyd Mayweather, whom he lost a tenth-round TKO in their hyped boxing match last August, in the Octagon.
However, Meltzer believes that Mayweather will not ultimately sign with the UFC to compete in a sport he would be at a massive disadvantage. And if he does not, the obvious choice for McGregor in the UFC would be a bout versus the winner of UFC 223’s Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov main event:
“All the pub right now is Mayweather under MMA rules but I can’t see Mayweather agreeing to that, even though it’s huge money,” Meltzer noted. “The UFC fight idea is the winner of Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov”
It’s an obvious choice, yet there’s far from a guarantee that McGregor will return to the UFC in 2018, if ever again.
He made a reported $100 million to box Mayweather, and as White hinted in his recent interview where he said Ferguson and Khabib would be fighting ‘for the title,’ he wouldn’t go as far to say that the UFC had officially stripped “The Notorious.”
Many believe that’s coming right before UFC 223.
With White noncommittal on McGregor’s return and the Irish star recently having broken the record for the longest UFC title reign without defending, everything is still as clear as mud.
We don’t fully know what’s going on behind the scenes, but if Meltzer’s report proves true, something huge could be coming soon.
Conor McGregor has a new UFC record, but it’s not necessarily one that will earn him a plaque in the UFC Hall of Fame. One year, three months, and one week – or 464 total days as of today – after he became the first UFC fighter to hold titles in two weight classes simultaneously […]
Conor McGregor has a new UFC record, but it’s not necessarily one that will earn him a plaque in the UFC Hall of Fame.
One year, three months, and one week – or 464 total days as of today – after he became the first UFC fighter to hold titles in two weight classes simultaneously by defeating Eddie Alvarez, McGregor now holds the record for the longest title reign without attempting to make his first title defense of the lightweight belt according to numbers chronicled by Bloody Elbow, a record McGregor officially broke last Sunday (February 18, 2018).
McGregor also held the UFC featherweight belt but did not defend it for 350 days and was stripped of the title only weeks after winning the lightweight belt.
That absence without defending the belt was long enough for McGregor to also hold the sixth-longest reign without attempting to defend. As it stands as of yesterday, he broke Anthony Pettis for the longest as well, although “Showtime’s” 463-day absence was due to injury, as were the other absences without defending in the top five from Frank Mir, Cain Velasquez’s first reign, and Matt Serra.
McGregor is unique in a sense, however, as his absence has been completely self-imposed. He spent the majority of 2017 seeking and getting a farcical boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, a spectacle that was one of the most lucrative events in combat sports history and made McGregor a reported $100 million, the most likely culprit for his now record-setting absence.
As MMA fans reach a fever pitch in their demands for McGregor to defend the title against the winner of UFC 223’s Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov fight, a contest that’s supposed to be for the ‘real’ title, he’s been lobbying for a rematch with Mayweather, this time in the UFC octagon.
Whispers have also swirled that the UFC will strip McGregor before UFC 223 once they know the oft-scheduled Ferguson vs. Khabib bout will finally happen without incident.
Regardless, McGregor’s inactivity is now historic, and if he were to get a second fight with Mayweather, we could most likely count on him not returning or ever defending his title.
At least he etched his name into the record books – and now, in more ways than one.
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