UFC News: Conor McGregor maintains that he is still the Featherweight Champion
In an interview with RTE Sport, during the RTE Sport Awards 2016, Conor McGregor reiterated yet again that he is still the double Champion. On being introduced as the UFC Lightweight Champion, the Irishman immediately corrected the interviewer, Clare McNamara, and informed her that he is still the Featherweight champion as well.
When being further questioned about the issue,
“I am the two weight world champion. Make no mistake about that. They can say what they want. They can try and get phony belts and hand them out to people I have already destroyed. The current Champion is a guy I ko’ed in 13 seconds. The Interim Champion is a guy I destroyed as well.”
When asked if he was officially stripped, McGregor said he doesn’t care what anybody says. He went on to say that the UFC hasn’t even spoken to him about the belt issue yet.
"All I know is they're trying to type onto the keyboard and say, we're taking this belt, we're taking that belt, we're doing this, we're doing that. You ain't doing nothing without contacting me first.”
Here is the interview in its entirety:
Conor McGregor talks to Clare McNamara after a year which he call the 'culmination of his life's work'. https://t.co/0AY8QPqGyu
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) December 17, 2016
The Irishman also commented on obtaining a boxing license and a potential fight with Floyd Mayweather.
“We’ll see what happens. Of course, I got the boxing license. His last fight had 350,000 PPV buys. It was a flop. His last two fights have been duds. I certainly don’t need him. I could pick some local schmuck and still do big numbers. Of course, the Floyd fight is something the public wants to see, but we’ll see because these things take time.”
McGregor was officially stripped of his title in late November, and Jose Aldo was promoted to the position of Champion in his stead. Max Holloway now holds the interim belt of the division after beating Anthony Pettis at UFC 206 via TKO. The Irishman won the belt back in December of 2015 and has not fought in the 145-lbs division since; opting to focus on other goals instead.
The Notorious one is now on hiatus, citing his girlfriend Dee Devlin’s pregnancy as a primary reason. However, he maintains that he is not sure about the duration of his hiatus and said that he initially thought of a short Christmas break as opposed to the duration of ten months that Danan White has been talking about.
He added that he thought his baby was due in March but later found out it was May and stated that there was a still a chance he could fight in that interval. He continued:
"I'm weighing up my options. But again, I expect that conversation. I expect them to fly that jet to me. Ari, Patrick, the new owners from WME-IMG, the guys that bought the UFC for $4 billion, I want to speak to them. I want to see what their plan is. Because right now I don't know what nobody's plan is."
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