mma / Columns

An Interim Title Adds Nothing to Holloway vs. Pettis

November 28, 2016 | Posted by Dan Plunkett

Daniel Cormier’s torn adductor muscle affected the most unlikely of casualties. The light heavyweight champion’s injury and subsequent withdrawal from his December 10 title defense didn’t just impact would-be challenger Anthony Johnson – it sent a ripple effect down 60 pounds to the featherweight division.

In a presentation to investors over the summer, the UFC unveiled what it claimed was the formula to its success on pay-per-view in 2015, “double stacking.” Following a down year in an injury-riddled 2014, the promotion stated that it took measures to minimize their loss in the event of an injury to a main event fighter by booking another major fight for the same show and readying backups. While the UFC followed that strategy for most pay-per-view events in 2016, UFC 206 was an exception. The promotion focused on making UFC 205 and UFC 207 major events with multiple big matches, which UFC 206 to feed on scraps. Still, after UFC 205 lost a couple of fights that bumped a few fighters to UFC 206, the card became relatively strong, but still only had one main event caliber fight. When that fight fell through, the promotion scrambled.

In place as the semi-main event was Max Holloway vs. Anthony Pettis, a very good featherweight scrap, but not a fight most would deem a pay-per-view main event. However, UFC had booked themselves into a corner by delivering a major show in November and planning another major one for New Year’s Eve weekend. A cancellation is the last thing they wanted, particularly considering their revenue targets following the sale, and they’d already cancelled one pay-per-view this year. UFC needed to work with what they had and make it seem as important as possible.

The promotion officially announced Saturday night that lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor had “relinquished” the featherweight title, elevating interim champion Jose Aldo to full champion status. Those changes enabled UFC to put the interim featherweight title on the line in its new UFC 206 main event, Holloway vs. Pettis.

For those scoring at home, Jose Aldo is now the owner of a belt he lost in 13 seconds one year ago, never having avenged his defeat. Although Aldo is unquestionably the greatest featherweight of all-time and likely the division’s best fighter in McGregor’s absence, the way the change was handled leaves one feeling that the belt has never meant less. Furthermore, if Aldo’s public comments are to be believed, he has no interest in fighting again. And now, the interim belt will be contested in a fight in which a championship stake wasn’t deemed necessary until a light heavyweight was injured. Got it?

We’ve known the deal with interim titles for years now. When used sparingly while champions are out for long periods (longer than a year) due to injury, they’re just fine. It was reasonable when Andrei Arlovski carried the interim heavyweight strap and when Renan Barao was interim bantamweight champion. However, UFC too often uses them as a Band-Aid when they’ve backed themselves into a corner and think they need another gimmick to draw. There was no reason for Jose Aldo’s interim title in July, nor Jon Jones’ in April or Shane Carwin’s in 2010.

In the case of Holloway vs. Pettis, there is an argument that an interim title is a valid addition to the bout, it’s just that UFC went about adding it in the worst way possible. If history is any indicator, Jose Aldo is almost certain to fight again. However, if he’s still on the outs with the promotion, turning down interim title defenses and not giving any indication that he’ll fight again, it makes all these sense in the world to introduce an interim title.

The problem is that Aldo was already the interim champion, and Conor McGregor held the actual featherweight title. It made sense to keep the featherweight title on McGregor for promotional purposes until his November 12 lightweight title challenge, but there should have been a clearer game plan coming out of that fight. If McGregor had given up the featherweight title within a week of his lightweight title win and UFC made the same changes prior to Daniel Cormier’s injury, there would be fewer questions and complaints surrounding UFC 206’s new main event. Instead, it appears as though they made all the changes based on a kneejerk reaction to Cormier’s injury, which makes the interim title bout seem silly and meaningless.

Going forward, the most likely scenario is that the winner of Holloway-Pettis will fight Aldo next for the undisputed championship and immediately afterward, everyone will completely forget about the interim title, but that’s exactly the problem. In this case, the interim title is so meaningless that it will be forgotten within 6 months or a year. Because of how UFC handled the situation, the interim belt adds little to no luster to UFC 206’s main event, whereas the entire goal of the belt is to add a sense of importance to the match. Now, the match has the same level of importance as before, but with a devalued shiny gold belt at stake.

Dan Plunkett has covered MMA for 411Mania since 2008. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @Dan_Plunkett.