UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor is no longer a two division champion after his featherweight belt was “relinquished” earlier this week, with Jose Aldo installed as the new title holder and Max Holloway Vs Anthony Pettis now set as an interim title fight.
McGregor has stayed quiet on the matter so far, but his coach John Kavanagh has broke his silence to criticize the way the UFC handled with the situation, saying that he was, “very disappointed with the way they went about it.”
“It was a very messy set of circumstances which led to doing it,” Kavanagh told Red FM. “They lost a main event (at UFC 206) and then they haphazardly threw together a new main event.
“They felt they had to make this for a title in order for it to sell so they brought in another interim title that Jose Aldo already has and then bumped Aldo up to the current undisputed champion. Which just seems ridiculous to me.”
In the end it was the fact that McGregor had opted not to defend the 145lb title so far since defeating Aldo to claim the crown late last year that led to this point, but Kavanagh still feels he could have been given more time.
“Conor has only been 11 months since he won that title. There have been many, many examples of fighters waiting 15 months, 18 months before defending it.
“He’s 11 months and they stripped him of it. I thought it was very shortsighted by the UFC how they went about doing it.”
Despite what he said, it’s likely that Kavanagh isn’t overly distraught with the situation given that he’s made it clear in the past that he didn’t think it was a good idea for McGregor to fight at featherweight any more due to the very tough weight cut that the fighter has to go through each time he competes at 145lbs.
Now Kavanagh will be able to focus on the other challenges that lie ahead for McGregor, including defending his lightweight title for the first time or a possible move up to welterweight to take on welterweight champion Tyron Woodley.
First things first though, McGregor intends to keep out of the Octagon until May at the earliest to give his pregnant girlfriend time to give birth to their first child together.
