“I like the sound of that 170lbs title as well. I feel I can take down three gold belts. And I feel I can do it by the year’s end.”
Conor McGregor had some pretty formidable aspirations for himself in 2016 and while he almost certainly won’t fit in another bout before the end of the year, he could well be a two-weight world champion by the time Auld Lang Syne rings out around the Mac Mansion.
‘The Notorious’ gets his chance at lightweight gold in the main event of UFC 205 next month, when he meets the hard-nosed Eddie Alvarez in New York City.
It’s by no means an easy feat but, if successful, McGregor has insisted that he won’t stop at two belts.
The UFC featherweight champion has suggested on numerous occasions, backed up by head coach John Kavanagh, that he wants to add that welterweight title to his mantel.
McGregor has fought at welterweight twice, albeit against a natural lightweight in Nate Diaz, and the reigning champion at 170lbs does not think it would benefit ‘The Notorious’ to move up against a legitimate welterweight.
Tyron Woodley suggested that McGregor simply knows better.
“Well first off I think Conor is a smart individual and he knows that fighting me is not going to be good for his health,” Woodley told BJPenn.com. “I just do not really see him wanting that fight. I see him relinquishing his 145lbs belt and then maybe defending his title a few times at lightweight. Maybe he does a super-fight here or there. There has been talks of him fighting Floyd Mayweather in boxing.”
Woodley’s next, and first, title defence is no gimme fight by any means.
He takes on Stephen Thompson, arguably the most talented striker in any UFC division, in the co-main event of UFC 205, but if ‘The Chosen One’ manages to successfully keep hold of his 170lbs title next month, he does not sound overly concerned about any threat posed by McGregor.
“So he is a smart business guy and so I do not think he is going to want to come up and fight a guy who is going to outsize him,” Woodley continued. “Being 170 and fighting 170 is two different things. I walk around at 200. Giving up that 30lbs.
“Plus he is not going to have a boxing advantage. He is definitely not going to have a wrestling advantage. He is definitely not going to have a strength advantage. And it would be a lopsided display of power.”
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