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Dana White: It Was Conor McGregor’s Decision To Vacate Title

Last weekend, the UFC announced that Conor McGregor had ‘relinquished’ his 145-pound title after winning the promotion’s lightweight title just a week prior. Accomplishing his goal to become the UFC’s first simultaneous two-weight world champion, the Irishman had previously said that it would take an ‘army’ to take one of his titles, but obviously the

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Oddly enough, McGregor has yet to comment on the matter, which transpired after the UFC promoted a featherweight co-main event bout at UFC 206 (Dec. 10, 2016) between Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis to a main event interim title bout, while making Jose Aldo, the man McGregor knocked out in 13 seconds last December, to undisputed champion.

Yesterday (Dec. 1, 2016), UFC President Dana White further explained the decision to Yahoo Sports:

“Look, I let Conor fight [Nate] Diaz and then, I let him fight Diaz again,” White said. “Then, there was the whole 155-pound thing I let him do. But at the end of the day, him doing that tied up the division for a year. There’s a logjam there and a lot of guys were [angry].

“This was my way to fix the logjam. I wanted Aldo to fight Holloway for the belt, but he needed more time. So I looked at it and I said, well, it makes sense to make Aldo the champion and then have Holloway and Pettis fight for the interim title, and when Jose’s ready, barring any crazy injuries, the winner can fight him.”

What’s still unclear regarding the whole situation, is whether or not it was the “Notorious” one’s decision to give up the title. His longtime head coach John Kavanagh said that the decision was solely made by the UFC, but White said otherwise:

“He’s [Kavanagh] misinformed,” White said. “Yeah, he doesn’t know all that has gone on, I guess. Do you think I just did this? This was Conor’s decision.”

Do you agree with White’s comments?

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Now Requiring Surgery, Daniel Cormier Still Refutes AKA Injury Critics

The American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) has faced quite a bit of scrutiny over the years as quite a bit of their fighters seem to have a habit of pulling out of fights due to injury during training camp. Most recently former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold was forced out of his highly-anticipated rematch with Ronaldo

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Most recently former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold was forced out of his highly-anticipated rematch with Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza that was supposed to go down at this past Saturday’s (November 26, 2016) UFC Melbourne event, however, Rockhold was forced to pull out of the fight due to a knee injury. Now Rockhold’s teammate and current UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has been forced off of his 205-pound title defense against Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson at UFC 206, as ‘DC’ tore a groin muscle during training camp.

Along with Rockhold and Cormier, former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and No. 1-ranked lightweight Khabib Nurmagomedov have also shown struggles with maintaining their health throughout the progression of a fight camp. Cormier is the latest on that long list, and news broke on UFC Tonight last night that he requires surgery that will keep until next March at the earliest.

However, Cormier recently spoke to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, courtesy of MMA Fighting, to fire back at those who criticize him and his camp’s methods of preparation:

“How can you train if you’re constantly worried about getting injured?” Cormier said. “Guys play basketball and get hurt and that’s probably the easiest sport on the planet. We’re actually fighting every day. We’re wrestling, we’re grappling.”

MMA: UFC 187-Johnson vs Cormier When it all comes down to it Cormier stands firmly behind his head-coach Javier Mendez and insists that people should not point the finger at him to blame for AKA’s injury riddled past, because when it all comes down to it ‘DC’ is a grown man who makes his own decisions in the gym:

“It’s not Javier’s fault,” Cormier said. “This isn’t college. We’re not high-school athletes. Javier can tell me not to spar and I’ll be like, ‘Yeah sure, Jav.’ And then I’ll go spar. People always get confused. They talk about coaches. The reality is, these coaches and managers that everybody thinks are in so much control, they work for us. They’re our employees.”

“The decisions are mine,” he said. “If I got hurt, it was my fault.”

Cormier is currently eying a February return-table to give Johnson his rematch at the 205-pound crown, and hopefully a quick turnaround to take on challenger Ryan Bader before July. When Cormier does return to the Octagon, however, he has quite the challenge ahead of him when it comes to ‘Rumble’.

You can check out Cormier’s full interview here:

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UFC 206 Free Fight: Max Holloway Vs. Ricardo Lamas

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEm46lMV5lc[/embed]

Next month at UFC 206, Max Holloway will put his nine-fight win streak on the line against Anthony Pettis for the interim UFC featherweight title.

But “Blessed” only reached this point …

Next month at UFC 206, Max Holloway will put his nine-fight win streak on the line against Anthony Pettis for the interim UFC featherweight title.

But “Blessed” only reached this point with a win at UFC 199 over Ricardo Lamas.

Holloway and Pettis meet on December 10 from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.

Kelvin Gastelum-Tim Kennedy Cleared For UFC 206

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTGgLKF1FUs[/embed]

Tim Kennedy once again has a fight set up.

According to a report by MMA Fighting, Kelvin Gastelum has been cleared to face Kennedy next month at UFC 206. The hold up was that the Ontari…

Tim Kennedy once again has a fight set up.

According to a report by MMA Fighting, Kelvin Gastelum has been cleared to face Kennedy next month at UFC 206. The hold up was that the Ontario Athletic Commission planned to fulfill the suspension handed down by the New York Athletic Commission to Gastelum for missing his weigh-in earlier this month.

Gastelum, though, settled on a $2,000 fine with the New York Athletic Commission and will be allowed to compete on December 10 vs. Kennedy.

Kennedy has gone through two cancelled fights with Rashad Evans in recent weeks, but was always hopeful of remaining on the Canada card.

UFC 206 Free Fight: “Showtime” Takes Out Joe Lauzon

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhqCJ5CFld0[/embed]

Before he faces Max Holloway next month at UFC 206 for the interim featherweight title, check out a fight replay featuring Anthony Pettis and Joe Lauzon.

The bout took place back in 201…

Before he faces Max Holloway next month at UFC 206 for the interim featherweight title, check out a fight replay featuring Anthony Pettis and Joe Lauzon.

The bout took place back in 2012 at UFC 144 when “Showtime” was still competing as a lightweight.

It marked just the third appearance for the eventual UFC lightweight champion.

Jose Aldo: Conor McGregor Was ‘Never Champion’

The MMA universe is still pondering the UFC’s curious decision to change the main event of UFC 206 into an interim featherweight title bout between Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis, but newly re-branded official champion Jose Aldo isn’t among those surprised Conor McGregor was stripped of the title. After he won the interim title versus Frankie

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After he won the interim title versus Frankie Edgar at July 9’s UFC 200, Aldo was given the belt that only he had boasted until McGregor knocked him out in a shocking 13 seconds at last year’s UFC 194 following a nearly yearlong build-up of epic circumstances. He campaigned for a rematch, yet the promotion decided to book McGregor against then-lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos and then Nate Diaz twice when ‘RDA’ broke his foot.

McGregor then went on to face and defeat Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title at UFC 205, a fight that made Aldo threaten to leave the promotion for good. Now that’s he the champion (although many would argue with the decision), Aldo spoke up to say he knew this would happen because his loss was a fluke and McGregor was ‘never champion’ (via UFC.com):

“I knew this would happen,” Aldo said. “To me, I have always been the champion. I lost that fight because of a (fluke).

“I know I could win in a rematch. I knew I would be champion again. It’s not my fault that (McGregor) is a coward, that he was never champion. I don’t see myself losing to anyone in this weight class, or any other.”

Aldo now plans on defending his official title against the winner of Holloway vs. Pettis, and as for whom he’d rather fight, ‘Junior’ said an elusive bout with former lightweight champion ‘Showtime’ would obviously be the bigger fight:

“I don’t care — I’ll be prepared to face whoever wins,” Aldo said of the Pettis-Holloway battle. “Of course, Pettis has a bigger name; he was champion once, and it would be a bigger fight. But if Holloway wins. it’s fine.

“I’m going to win anyway.”

Strong words from arguably the greatest featherweight in the history of the UFC, but fans may be beginning to wonder where the Aldo of old is, as the champion hasn’t been able to show up to the Octagon all that often in recent years.

And when he does, he’s even admitted to coasting to decisions, relying on his superior talent rather than letting it all hang out with his formerly furious goal of finishing each and every fighter he met. This new, more brash version of Aldo is certainly drawing more headlines, but at some point he’ll have to put forth a dominant win for fans to truly accept him as champion – right or wrong.

Do you believe he should be given his respect as the true champion, or was he just dealt the benefit of some odd circumstances?

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