Conor McGregor Admits It’s Time To Defend The Title

After nearly two years of being a champion at featherweight and lightweight in the UFC, Conor McGregor admits he needs to defend his belt…

Since joining the UFC in 2013, Conor McGregor has become a household name. Entering as a brash but relatively unknown hopeful, he would soon become a two-weight UFC world champion.

There has been an asterisk, though, even with all his accomplishments in the UFC. During his entire career, McGregor has never defended a title. After starching Jose Aldo at UFC 194, McGregor would jump up to welterweight for two contests.

Avenging his first UFC loss against Nate Diaz, McGregor then faced Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight belt. This ruffled a lot of feathers, as the third time he’d competed since winning the 145-pound belt.

The UFC had stripped champions for a lot less, but they were forced to admit ‘The Notorious’ was different. By this time McGregor was shattering pay-per-view records, essentially calling the shots.

Time to Defend

After trotting off to boxing for a money fight with Floyd Mayweather, McGregor has many options ahead of him. Although he’s heavily linked to a third contest with Nate Diaz, there’s much more out there.

Would the Diaz fight be a title contest? Given the fact it would probably be at lightweight, you’d think so. With Kevin Lee and Tony Ferguson competing for the interim belt at UFC 216, the situation becomes more complicated.

During this week’s Glasgow pay-per-view interview, no we didn’t pay either, McGregor finally admitted it’s time to defend the title:

Diaz Pricing Himself Out?

“Look, I’ve got the UFC title to defend and that means something to me. I will defend that world title. Nathan is there. He’s trying to come in here and make all of these demands. If he starts pricing himself out of an event, I probably will defend against the person who wins this interim belt…or someone along that line to legitimize it again.”

“I’ve already gone from the highest of the high in terms of a money fight. Now the question I always get is about defending the belt and legitimizing the sport and the rankings. Maybe now it would be a good time for me to go and do that and shut that side up.” said Conor McGregor to the media.”

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“Again, we’ll see what happens in the fight (next) week. I hope they make the walk. I’ve seen it so many times where they slip on the bleedin’ soap getting out of the bath. Honestly, I feel like in the Tony and Khabib fight, they were in a game of chicken of whose going to pull out first.”

“I’ve done the money fight. I’ve done the pinnacle of a money fight – I fought for the money belt – the WBC money belt it was called. In my head now, I’m very interested in seeing this fight this weekend and to see how the lightweight title picture pans out and to go in and correct that whole situation. That’s where my thoughts are.

“I also have history with Nate. It’s 1-1 and that has to happen. It will happen. The more I spend time away from it, I think I’ve already done all of the money fights. Now, to legitimize a title and to bring it back, I could potentially bring it back. That’s a little bit exciting for me. I’ll see how this whole title picture plays out and we’ll go from there.”