Conor McGregor’s historic hoisting of two UFC belts in the air on November 12 was enough to make him the greatest of all time in many fans’ estimations.
The fact that the feat of becoming a two-weight world champion had been accomplished for the first time in UFC history led plenty to believe that he had not only entered the conversation alongside Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre and Jon Jones but that he had leapfrogged all three.
'The Notorious' is in some fantastic company | @DarrMurphy https://t.co/29gkQD3lMR
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) November 13, 2016
But there are just as many apprehensive individuals who are reluctant to offer that honour to a fighter who has yet to defend his world title.
And one such figure is Mark Henry, esteemed head coach to the likes of Frankie Edgar and Eddie Alvarez, who thinks that ‘The Notorious’ still has to get past two specific opponents to be considered the greatest fighter of all time.
Henry has suggested that until McGregor is victorious against featherweight contender Edgar and top lightweight challenger Khabib Nurmagomedov, then he cannot be spoken of as G.O.A.T.
“I’d say he’d be the greatest if he beat Frankie and Khabib,” he told The Daily Star. “Then I’d put him as the greatest. But until he does that, I still think he’s one of the greats.
“He’s never defended the featherweight title. He says he’s cleaned out the division, but until you fight Frankie, you haven’t cleaned it out.
“If he fought Frankie he’d be able to say that as he’s already fought Holloway, he’s already fought Aldo and he’s already fought Mendes. But he’s never fought Frankie.
“I think Frankie has been a staple as one of the best fighters ever. And he’s definitely a staple at 145lbs.
“It doesn’t matter that he beat Aldo and Frankie didn’t because you could say, ‘whoever beat Nate Diaz can beat McGregor’ and that’s not true. That’s just stupid even saying that.”
Dick Clerkin makes his GAA Hour debut to talk about a wonderful career and argue passionately with Colm Parkinson over Sky Sports GAA. Subscribe here on iTunes.
