Conor has taken some heat for his recent career trajectory. He has yet to defend his FW belt, and is about to take his 3rd fight outside of the weightclass, while meanwhile interim champion Jose Aldo just wants to get his shot at reclaiming the 145 strap that was formerly his, before McGregor took it after those infamous 13 seconds.
Bleacher Report
Fans are split on the issue. There’s McGregor fans, and people who think it would be badass to see a guy with two UFC belts at the same time, and then there’s people who think it’s unfair to tie up the featherweight division for so long, and to have Conor moving up for a superfight when he hasn’t even defending his belt yet. Granted, his win over Aldo to secure the championship was huge, and spectacular, but he’s gone 1-1 since then and has a title shot in a division he hasn’t competed in before in the UFC. But we’re in the McGregor era now, where anything can happen (And there’s apparently no room for GSP in the UFC anymore…)
There has been speculation about what Conor’s plans will be, regardless of whether he wins or loses his upcoming fight against Alvarez for the 155 strap. Rumors are growing that his girlfriend, Dee Devlin, could be pregnant and Conor plans to take a year off after his next fight. So, if he had two belts, and takes a year off, that’s two divisions held up for quite a while.
As it turns out, there’s only going to be one division held up…
Here’s a quote from Conor:
“Let me see the pictures on publications with a belt on each shoulder first. Let me go onto the side of that Octagon and raise two world titles, what’s never been done before, before talking about stripping me. Let me get the fu*kin things, let me do it. I’ll always listen to the correct business move and I’ll always do what is the correct move, but let me do it and let me go back and look at some pictures of me with two belts and let me embrace it for half-a-day. Let me look at the historic images we’re going to get on this night, me with these two belts. That’s what everyone should be excited about, this is history.”
Dana White has said that Conor will have to drop one of the belts, if he were to win both. Conor just wants to hold them both, even if he’s not actively defending both of them, so he seems fine with the terms of vacating one of his titles, but the reason he doesn’t vacate FW immediately to allow the division to move forward is because he wants to make history with both belts at once.
If Conor loses against Eddie, that still leaves the FW division up in the air if he takes a year off, so he could potentially get stripped of it either way.
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