A UFC featherweight division without Conor McGregor doesn’t bear thinking about. The Notorious has earned the right to take on Jose Aldo
Dana White’s major announcement that McGregor would be next in line to try to usurp king Aldo’s featherweight throne was met with vitriol by a lot of the MMA cognoscenti. The consensus among detractors of the match-up was that the Irishman had talked his way into skipping the queue, but in reality, he fought his way to the zenith of the sport.
The financial benefits of having a charismatic character like McGregor are obvious. You just have to look at the roaring success of Silva vs Sonnen II to see that pitting a trash-talking master against a storied champion is a sure-fire way to sell PPVs.
However, while McGregor’s loquaciousness certainly aided his rise to combat sports super stardom, he wouldn’t have gotten a chance to do so without being a world class athlete.
If you didn’t know anything about McGregor, all you have to do is take a quick glance at his record to see that he is a supremely gifted fighter. 17 wins with 15 by way of knockout speaks for itself. Add to this his five-fight unbeaten run streak in the toughest promotion in the sport, one of which came against a top five-ranked opponent, and it should become glaringly obvious that McGregor is not your average fighter.
The Edgar argument
There’s a dearth of contenders in the 135 lb division, mainly because Aldo has already dispatched of most of the competition. The Korean Zombie getting his shot after just three fights in the UFC is a testament to this.
Aldo has defeated four of the five top-ranked featherweights, the only exception being McGregor. The argument that Edgar is more deserving of a crack at the belt because of who The Answer has beaten can be countered with the fact that he’s already fought and lost to the champion in 2013.
This fact alone shouldn’t rule Edgar out of a title fight with Aldo, after all he has improved his overall game substantially since UFC 155 and is a legitimate threat to Aldo’s reign as champ. However, why give a man a chance at redemption after being well-beaten in the first contest ahead of a new opponent with a different skill set that Aldo may not have come across before?
Dana White says Conor McGregor receives next title shot if he beats Denis Siver… Weird, thought Frankie Edgar did enough for it.
— David Kano (@realdkano) January 2, 2015
Edgar has been held up as this example of someone who has been completely screwed over by the UFC. A guy whose title shot has been stolen by a man who has been allowed to skip the queue by virtue of his marketable media persona.
However, Edgar has lost three title fights since 2012, one as a champ and two as a contender. He’s already had plenty of chances and, while he deserves another title shot due to his outstanding form of late, it’s arguable that McGregor deserves it more because of his clean UFC record.
It’s also important to note that Edgar has only been waiting little over a year for his rematch with Aldo, that’s hardly an unjustly long period considering their first fight wasn’t all that close.
Therefore, it makes sense that the promising hot shot was given his first crack at winning a UFC belt over the accomplished veteran being handed his fourth.
https://twitter.com/davedoylemma/status/536399440677175297
Then there’s the argument that because of the perception that McGregor wouldn’t be able to cope with elite wrestlers and that Edgar would comprehensively defeat him inside the cage, a title eliminator bout between the two would be the logical step to find the legitimate No1 contender.
If it were true that Edgar would beat McGregor with ease, then surely his fans would want the Notorious to fight for the title next. If McGregor beats Aldo, then the logical No1 contender Edgar can step in and rip that coveted belt from his clutches. If Aldo is victorious over the Dubliner, then we’re back to square one and Edgar is next in line.
A title eliminator against McGregor wouldn’t be in Edgar’s best interest in this regard. Why run the risk of possibly losing to another contender and falling back down the pecking order when he could just wait in the wings, confident in the knowledge that he is all but guaranteed the next title shot?
Also. eliminating one of the strongest contenders would be a terrible move for a division that is noticeably lacking opponents for the champion. Take the light-heavyweight division as an example. Daniel Cormier wasn’t forced to fight Alexander Gusafsson before the Jones bout. This was to ensure that the champion could stay active with competitive bouts and that the fans could actually watch him fight.
If McGregor was to face Edgar next, then Aldo would either have to bide his time until his next title defence or the UFC would have to keep him busy by putting him up against some undeserving schmuck simply to give ensure that the fans don’t forget about their champion.
A match for Aldo?
https://twitter.com/JustBleedMMA/status/550801900447088640
You can’t say that Aldo is going to annihilate McGregor solely because he’s been such a dominant champion. The only way to find out for certain whether one fighter can beat another is by getting them to slug it out in a good old-fashioned war.
No sane person gave TJ Dillashaw a hope in hell when he got his crack at the bantamweight championship against Renan Barao. The Brazilian, who boasted an outstanding 32-1 record going into that fight, was seen as invincible inside the Octagon. He was expected to not only defeat the young Team Alpha Male prospect, but obliterate him,
To Dillashaw’s credit, he rose to the occasion and got the upset victory by completely destroying the champ over five rounds, eventually knocking him out in the fifth. Fight fans rejoiced with the news that the underdog was their new champion and more importantly, they began to realise that there were no guarantees in the sport.
What’s to say that McGregor couldn’t pull a Dillashaw? Especially considering that he is in a far better position to compete for a belt than the Californian native was at UFC 173. His record is better, he’s beaten tougher opponents and the weapons in his arsenal are arguably more devastating.
McGregor getting the nod is not only good for making the division more interesting but it will also boost the profile of the sport massively, particularly in Europe.
Edgar’s shot will come very soon, but just not before the Notorious gets his chance to silence the haters, even for just a few brief moments if his hand gets raised.
