McGregor Aiming for Special Place in History at UFC 197

Even with a knee injury taking an 11-month bite out of his career, Conor McGregor’s rise to featherweight quick was quick. He debuted thunderously, with a 67-second knockout that turned heads. Two fights later, he was headlining his first show, and one fight after that he jumped into serious title contention. Within ten months, he was a champion, and five months later, he became king.

The clinching of a world championship and the divisional number one ranking is usually the beginning in a long road to legend status. Many roads end abruptly, often in a fighter’s next fight, while others take long and winding roads chock full of detours. Rarely is the path direct or short.

Conor McGregor, as is his way, is angling to jump right into legend status after dethroning longtime featherweight champion Jose Aldo. As first reported by Bleacher Report’s Jeremy Botter, McGregor will climb to the lightweight division for a crack at Rafael dos Anjos and, more importantly, at history.

Mixed martial arts has had its share of multi-divisional champions at a major level. Randy Couture and BJ Penn famously scored belts in two weight classes in the UFC. Dan Henderson held two titles at once in Pride, and even acquired a Strikeforce title. Those three are the best examples, after that it gets shakier with what you consider a “major level.” Frank Shamrock was among the top two middleweights (199 lbs. and under, later adjusted to become the modern light heavyweight division) when he held his UFC title, and he later captured the Strikeforce middleweight belt (in the modern 185 lbs. division), but that era’s Strikeforce couldn’t be considered a first-class organization. Gegard Mousasi survived a tough tournament field to earn the Dream middleweight title and later won light heavyweight belts in both Dream and Strikeforce, but the large majority of the top talent in both divisions was elsewhere. The same could be said for Bibiano Fernandes, who won featherweight and bantamweight titles in Dream (capturing the latter belt as the promotion was on its last legs and had little top talent); Joe Warren, who took featherweight and bantamweight gold in Bellator; and Jake Shields, who won titles at welterweight and middleweight in EliteXC and Strikeforce, respectively. Then there’s Daniel Cormier, who while never the official Strikeforce heavyweight champion, was the de facto champion as the last man standing in the promotion’s heavyweight tournament. Last year, he picked the UFC light heavyweight title up after Jon Jones.

McGregor, however, could be a case unlike nearly all of the others. He competes in an era where the vast majority of the top talent competes in one organization. There are talented lightweights and featherweights in outside organizations, particularly in Bellator, but nobody would argue the UFC doesn’t house all but a few of each division’s elite. Winning a UFC title today means more than it has at any point in history.

The three best examples of multi-divisional champions – Couture, Henderson, and Penn – are such because at certain points they had an argument for being the best in both divisions. Randy Couture usually ranked in the top spot at heavyweight between beating Maurice Smith and losing to Enson Inoue, and he was neck-and-neck with Wanderlei Silva for the top spot at light heavyweight at a certain point, but the top talent in both divisions was splintered among two or more organizations at both times. Henderson, again competing in an era with top talent not centered in one place, was never a unanimous top middleweight, and most put one or two fighters ahead of him at light heavyweight. Penn is something of an exception. Although without a belt, he was widely considered the world’s best lightweight when he made the jump to welterweight and beat champion Matt Hughes. He was tops in two weight classes, and later he’d add a title at lightweight. However, again, the landscape of the sport was more scattered than today.

McGregor’s potential accomplishment would trump the above. He beat the unquestioned best featherweight in the world – previously unbeaten for ten years – in 13 seconds. Even if he were to edge Rafael dos Anjos in less decisive fashion – say a narrow split decision – he’d still be beating a fighter that convincingly topped the world’s best lightweights again and again.

The only obstacle in McGregor’s way is dos Anjos. It’s a tremendous task. Fighters moving up in weight, even great champions, don’t always find success. McGregor has competed at lightweight before; in fact, the majority of his career was as a lightweight, but he’s never approached a lightweight of this level. Dos Anjos has seemed unbeatable in his two most recent bouts, a dominant title win over Anthony Pettis and a quick decimation of Donald Cerrone.

If he wins, he’s an overnight legend; a champion for the ages.

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.