Who beat Conor McGregor for the UFC featherweight and lightweight belts?
No fighter beat Conor McGregor for the UFC featherweight and lightweight belts. He vacated the featherweight title and was stripped of the lightweight title due to inactivity in both the divisions.
Jose Aldo was promoted from the interim to the undisputed champion of the 145-pounds division after The Irishman vacated the belt. In 155-pounds, Khabib Nurmagomedov was crowned the champion after his win over Al Iaquinta at UFC 223, which led to the belt being stripped off Conor McGregor.
Conor McGregor - vacating the featherweight belt
Conor McGregor was originally supposed to fight the-then featherweight champion Jose Aldo at UFC 189 in July, 2015, but the latter had to pull out due to a rib injury during the fight camp. Chad Mendes stepped in to replace Aldo with the interim featherweight title on the line.
Conor McGregor walked out to The Foggy Dew by Sinead O'Connor amid the electrifying ambiance of the MGM Grand Garden Arena and picked up the interim title with a TKO within two rounds. Six months later, he unified the belts with the fastest title fight knockout in UFC history till date, sleeping Jose Aldo in just 13 seconds at UFC 194.
Conor McGregor spent the next year fighting Nate Diaz twice at welterweight and going up a division to become the lightweight champion as well. It left the featherweight title scene in a "logjam" situation, as Dana White said in a 2016 interview with Yahoo Sports.
"Look, I let Conor fight [Nate] Diaz and then I let him fight Diaz again. Then there was the whole 155-pound thing I let him do. But at the end of the day, him doing that tied up the division for a year. There’s a logjam there and a lot of guys were [angry]," Dana White said.
In November, 2016, it was announced that Conor McGregor has vacated the featherweight belt and the interim titleholder Jose Aldo was promoted to the undisputed champion. Conor McGregor has not fought in the featherweight division ever since.
McGregor's coach John Kavanagh claimed that 'The Notorious' was stripped off the belt after only 11 months of being the champion, when there were fighters who waited 15-18 months before their first title defense. Dana White defended himself, saying it was McGregor's voluntary decision and Kavanagh was "misinformed".
Conor McGregor - stripping of the lightweight belt
Conor McGregor made history when he defeated lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez at the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York and became the first ever two-division UFC champion at UFC 205.
However, he was once again inactive in the division, this time being completely away from the octagon. First, he took time off for the birth of his first child, and then to fight Floyd Mayweather which went on to become the second highest grossing pay-per-view ever.
After multiple changes of potential opponents, Khabib Nurmagomedov ultimately met Al Iaquinta at UFC 223 for the undisputed lightweight belt. As Iaquinta weighed in 0.2 pounds over the weight limit, only 'The Eagle' was eligible to win the title and he did so via unanimous decision.
Conor McGregor has fought in lightweight twice ever since and lost both times - once to Khabib Nurmagomedov and once to Dustin Poirier.
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