A simple schedule reshuffle for the Ultimate Fighting Championship's upcoming Dec. 10 event had Conor McGregor stripped of his featherweight division belt making José Aldo the new official champion for the category.
The decision was announced by commentator Jon Anik during the main card broadcast of UFC Melbourne over the weekend. As it turns out light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier's groin injury prompted him to be pulled out of the spectacle against Anthony Johnson. And in the spirit of keeping the date as enticing as possible, the co-main event fight between featherweight contenders Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis will become the headliner for the occasion.
Amplifying the stakes in the bout, what was supposed to only be an interim featherweight title fight against interim champion Aldo will offer a legitimate shot at the title with Aldo being promoted as the division's champion. This technically had the UFC taking the title from McGregor who beat the Brazilian mixed martial artist in such an impressive fashion last year at UFC 194.
The community wasted no time in airing their reactions for the move with a lot of them questioning the decision as it was almost counterintuitive. NGAUGE Inc. creator Stephan Bonnar tweeted that the UFC "pried it from his cold dead hands," referring to McGregor's belt. Flyweight fighter Neil Seery, on the other hand, argued that just handing Aldo the belt do not exactly make him feel like a champion as long as the Notorious is active.
So when the #UFC says @NotoriousMMA relinquished his 145 lb, belt, I hear: "We pried it from his cold dead hands."
— Stephan Bonnar (@StephanBonnar) November 27, 2016 " data-caption="null" data-credit="null">Don't think Aldo or any of the featherweights will feel like a champion as long as Conor is still active
— Neil 2 Tap Seery (@NeilSeeryMMA) November 27, 2016 " data-caption="null" data-credit="null">McGregor has yet to give his side of the story which is kind of unusual for the opinionated and unfiltered Irish mixed martial artist. But when his agent, Audie Attar, was asked last week by ESPN's Five Rounds podcast about what the athlete will do if UFC asks him to hand over his featherweight title, Attar was had a positive spin on it.
"He's a businessman, so he is going to make business decisions," Attar said. "No matter what happens, nobody will ever be able to take those belts away from him. Nobody has beat him for those belts. So the way I look at it is, whatever business decision Conor decides to make, it's a smart one. We have proven that to date.
"If a belt is taken or what have you, it's figurative. He still keeps that win. Nobody beat him to dethrone him," he added.
So far, no upcoming match is scheduled for Mystic Mac as he is taking some time off for the birth of his first child with longtime girlfriend Dee Devlin. However, rumors of him eventually fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. have been floating around for quite some time now, furthered by a little goading from both parties involved.
