After Mayweather... there was a fight all ready scheduled for October 6 to see who he would fight... so it wouldn't make sense for him to "squeeze something in"... ya know. he pretty much had to wait till that happened as the whole idea of that interim fight was to see who Mac would fight next.
We had the delay in negotiations for him jumping the Bellator cage... but even Aldo commented that he did the same thing at a lesser promotion when his team mate was fighting. It's unfortunate that it escalated after they put their hands on him... and delayed his UFC fight... but all indicators seem to be focused on March 3...
I think everyone's just jumping the gun too much on all this. Oct. 7, 2017 was when Conor's opponent was chosen. March 3, 2018 is when they will fight. That's just 5 months.
Champions shouldn't be sitting and waiting for challengers to emerge.....there is always the top guy for him to fight....or at least one of them.....
Look at Bispings championship time.....telling every single top contender that they hadn't done enough for a shot at the MW title.....and then fighting Henderson and GSP.....
Now we have a MW belt that hasn't been defended against a top MW in two years.....
16 months is WAY too long to be sitting on a title without a defense.....
The UFC needs to make a rule that barring injury, champions will be stripped if they go 9 months without defending their belt against AT LEAST 1 fighter in the top 10 of the division....
Tony's belt is more legitimate than Conors.....Tony is on a 10 fight win streak and has fought and tried to fight the best in the division.....
Conor has had 1 LW fight in the UFC.....and it was over a year ago....
I don't have a problem with the UFC gift-wrapping title shots to increase revenue. But there is a big problem when fighters are able to turn their belts into tin.....
There shouldn't be more legitimate titles than the 'real' one......
GSPs belt hasn't been defended against a top MW since 2015.....
Mcgregors belt hasn't been defended against a top LW since July 2016...by the time Mcgregor defends his belt, it will be almost 2 years that the top LW fighter in the world hasn't been recognized as the best, whether its Khabib or Tony.....
Once again, the problem isn't the UFC gift-wrapping title shots for undeserving contenders.....the problem is, if those contenders pull off the upset, getting the new champion to defend his belt in a division where he hasn't proven to be the best fighter.....