Conor McGregor Should Remain at Featherweight

Since Conor McGregor knocked out Jose Aldo at UFC 194, the question surrounding the new undisputed featherweight champion is if he’s going to actually move up to lightweight and pursue a title in another division, or will he remain at featherweight to defend his title? At the moment, McGregor is weighing his options. He’s in a perfect position to do so. He just headlined one of the biggest UFC events of all time. He’s one of, if not the biggest, top draws in the UFC right now. Hollywood is now knocking on his door, and Vin Diesel wants him to work on XXX 2. McGregor can really do whatever he wants at this point, but the smart money is that he stays at featherweight for his immediate future.

Now, pretty much any fight McGregor does next will be big money just because of McGregor. However, I think the biggest fight you can make for McGregor right now is Frankie Edgar. Edgar has rightfully earned a shot at the title after utterly submitting and dominating Cub Swanson. In his last fight out, Edgar knocked out Chad Mendes of all people in the first round, which no one was expecting. Edgar had previously had more of a reputation of being a decision artist before he moved down to featherweight. Now he’s really settled in to a division that he is well suited for, and he’s tearing apart the competition. If McGregor plans a move up to lightweight to fight for the belt, and he refuses to vacate the featherweight title, that’s going to logjam the featherweight division for a considerable amount of time. When you have a fresh, healthy and ready Frankie Edgar raring to go, that just doesn’t make sense. Not to mention, there is also a healthy line of contenders vying for the belt at lightweight. The fact is, Edgar’s recent winning and finishing streak, coupled with the absolute dominance of McGregor, is a fight you can market the hell out of. These are currently the two top featherweights on the planet. That fight is a more enticing match-up than McGregor vs. Rafael dos Anjos.

There is certainly precedence in the UFC to allow a champion to move up in weight to fight for another title. The UFC did it with former lightweight champion BJ Penn, who fought Georges St-Pierre. However, in that case, Penn at least had already defended his belt once against the former champion Sean Sherk. After his loss to GSP at UFC 94, BJ Penn was at least able to defend his title later that year against Kenny Florian in the midst of one of the best runs of his career. So technically, it’s not impossible for McGregor to make a move up in weight, hypothetically lose, and then defend his title later in the same year. However, again it just seems silly to put off the Edgar fight right now. And then right after Edgar, you have Max Holloway, who has been on an unprecedented eight-fight winning streak since his earlier loss to McGregor. However, the other reason I like the Edgar fight is that if McGregor wins there, he’s basically cleaned out the top contenders of the division. That gives him dominating wins over Jose Aldo, Frankie Edgar, Chad Mendes and Max Holloway for his run. That’s a legacy cementing fight.

Of course, the other factor here is the weight cut. McGregor’s coach, John Kavanagh, is apparently not keen at McGregor fighting at 145 pounds anymore. McGregor looks downright frightening when he cuts weight, since he already walks around very lean. But apparently, McGregor still had no problem making weight this time out. And if he really doesn’t plan on vacating his title and wants to defend it, then he should defend it. If it’s an issue of the weight cut is debilitating and he can’t make the weight, the answer is simple. He needs to make a permanent move up in weight, and he would have to relinquish the featherweight title. If he can’t make featherweight anymore, he can’t hold that belt and not allow other top fighters to compete for that title.

In terms of match-up, I also really like how Edgar matches up with McGregor. Edgar is a guy who has never been finished. He has top-notch footwork and boxing. He’s an elite MMA wrestler and takedown artist. However, McGregor’s technique is exceptional. No one was ever able to put away Jose Aldo before McGregor, and McGregor did it in 13 seconds. For the featherweight division, Edgar vs. McGregor is a dream match-up, and that’s the fight I want to see next.