Should Conor Be Stripped?

[blazerkor]

There is a bit of a difference between a champ who is getting hurt or whatnot and someone who is able to fight but is fighting at a different weight than where they hold the belt. It doesn't make sense to have the champ of a division fighting at another weight class multiple times instead of defending their belt. I'm not saying that he should be stripped, but I am saying I can understand people calling for an interim belt or possible stripping if he doesn't defend the belt this year.

I think an interim belt would only make sense, to put pressure on Conor to defend, if Conor doesn't go down there after this timely money making opportunity. McGregor v Diaz 2 makes twice as much money as Edgar v McGregor does. These guys have to make money while they can.

Also, if Conor said that he was never going back to FW, Dana would leverage that belt to make the UFC more money right away.

 

[csroster]

Well the weird thing is post fight conference after McG/Diaz, Conor said he would defend the FW belt next and that basically he had less pull having lost that fight. It really feels like the UFC is the ones that convinced Conor to take this fight instead of defending his belt, but I could be wrong.

 

[kaya]

An interesting rule (that isn't a rule).

It is one thing, to not defend your title at the given weight class.

But how about, every "4 months" a fighter has to make weight at their title fight weight.

It would prevent some of these silly fantasy matches happening again.

 

[Wayweary]

The answer to that is unequivocally NO. Jose Aldo twice held that belt up for over a year, pulling out of multiple planned bouts and no one was talking about stripping him. So why on earth, when the promotion is behind him and he is fighting/making the UFC money, would they strip him. We're not talking about a vote by Frankie Edgar, Max Holloway, Chad Mendes, Aldo and Ricardo Lamas. We're talking about what the UFC wants to do.

In fact the people who should be ashamed for holding up the division are those five guys. None of them have fights scheduled, none of them have fought since Conor won the belt, none of them are calling each other out and none of them are making the kind of noise that makes them the money fight. Should Frankie get the next shot immediately? Probably not, go out and beat Max Holloway or better Jose Aldo and then start whining, don't whine now. Call the other guys out and beat them. It's not the ultimate whining championship.

He should be stripped or they should create an interim belt just like they did for him. If he's not even fighting in the weight class anymore, he has no right holding the belt.

 

[The Natural Born Runner]

The answer to that is unequivocally NO. Jose Aldo twice held that belt up for over a year, pulling out of multiple planned bouts and no one was talking about stripping him. So why on earth, when the promotion is behind him and he is fighting/making the UFC money, would they strip him. We're not talking about a vote by Frankie Edgar, Max Holloway, Chad Mendes, Aldo and Ricardo Lamas. We're talking about what the UFC wants to do.

In fact the people who should be ashamed for holding up the division are those five guys. None of them have fights scheduled, none of them have fought since Conor won the belt, none of them are calling each other out and none of them are making the kind of noise that makes them the money fight. Should Frankie get the next shot immediately? Probably not, go out and beat Max Holloway or better Jose Aldo and then start whining, don't whine now. Call the other guys out and beat them. It's not the ultimate whining championship.

Having fights and getting injured is completely different than refusing to take fights.

I just decimated your entire point in 13 words, impressive!

 

[blazerkor]

They don't schedule their own fights. The UFC does. You don't know they haven't been calling Joe Silva or DW and saying please get me a fight.

And on the Aldo issue. Aldo pulled out because of injury. He physically couldn't fight. Conor is holding up the division so he can secure another title in another weight class and drop the FW title. Then he loses to a contender and instead of saying alright time to defend my belt he says I want a rematch against a LW at WW. And the money grubbing UFC brass is pushing the idea too. That's why he will NEVER be stripped.

We need another major fighting organization like Pride, Strikeforce, or Bellator to put pressure on the UFC to quit acting like the WWE.

All the UFC has to say is fighter A is the baddest fighter at X weight class and fighter B has been on a vicious tear lately and people will watch.

Frankie and Jose have both gone on record saying they only want Conor next and are willing to wait because they both think they deserve the shot and Jose probably does because he was the only FW title holder ever but he has his injury concerns; Frankie has won every fight he needed to in order to get that fight so he might deserve it to but the UFC isn't a meritocracy they are a prize fight promotion so they will go for the biggest prize/biggest fight. The truth is they are nothing like "sports entertainment" because the UFC promotes the fights (real life fights that aren't scripted) that they think will make the most money. They are not writing story lines.

As far as what Pride did to the sport, well they fixed fights, it's documented, and made it so we couldn't see the fights we wanted to see. So competition would be better for the fighters but bad for the fans.

 

[The Natural Born Runner]

I thought he should too but if the UFC wants him to headline their biggest show of all time in the biggest Las Vegas venue ever, why would he turn that down. In the mean time all of these guys who want a shot at the title should show it by fighting each other.

Yeah, but you're silly here.

UFC 200 will have a heap of huge fights, it will do fantastic numbers anyway. Rumours of Jones, Ronda, GSP and the likes will easily be enough to make this card gigantic. It's a perfect time to slide in a fighter like Edgar, where he supposedly doesn't sell PPV's. Whomever Conor faces the fight will always be big, since when was Nate Diaz a proven PPV draw? This just comes of as an amateur opinion.

Conor needs to defend the belt, I don't want to hear money, entertainment, boring etc. etc.

Oh, and since when is being a real-life rocky, a former champion, a guy with more heart than a medical institute and the guy who KO'd the top contender in the division in his last fight - a boring fighter?

...

 

[blazerkor]

Having fights and getting injured is completely different than refusing to take fights.

I just decimated your entire point in 13 words, impressive!

I feel decimated you're right... Conor is for sure refusing fights. Oh wait, the guy that makes the fights said "Conor has never refused a fight". Conor is making money, these other guys should do the same while they can instead of sitting around whining.

 

[King Bastar]

Nah, if he fights at featherweight before year's end I'm cool with him holding the strap. If his intention aren't to cut that weight again, he needs to do the division fair and relinquish it instead of using it as a promotional prop.

 

[Fedor>Cain]

Why stripped? If this nonsense goes on over a year, then we can talk of stripping him of his title. He won the belt a few months ago. Relax.

I think the UFC should set a one year non-defend time limit. If you can't defend in a year, you have to relinquish the title.

This.

I can't believe the UFC hasn't instituted a time limit like this to being with. If they have, I'm not aware of it. I hate the nonsense with interim belts. So stupid. I don't want see Conor win a paper belt from Mendes. I would rather see him get the belt when he KTFO'd Jose Aldo instead. If you can't defend your shit within 12 months, you get stripped, simple as that. And fuck interim champs.

 

[tenniswhiz]

I disagree. He should be stripped, feathered, and tarred.

 

[DickNiaz420]

Why stripped? If this nonsense goes on over a year, then we can talk of stripping him of his title. He won the belt a few months ago. Relax.

I think the UFC should set a one year non-defend time limit. If you can't defend in a year, you have to relinquish the title.

That has pretty much been the rule for a long time, minus a few exceptions. You also lose any ranking you had after a year.

 

[The Natural Born Runner]

I feel decimated you're right... Conor is for sure refusing fights. Oh wait, the guy that makes the fights said "Conor has never refused a fight". Conor is making money, these other guys should do the same while they can instead of sitting around whining.

How is fighting Max Holloway on some free card in New Jersey "making money while can"?

This isn't the fucking WWE, the guys with "the look" don't get pushed to the top. This is supposed to be a fucking sport right? With guidelines, uniforms, rankings etc. these things were all put in place to make this shit-show "legitimate" right? and not some fat fuck like Tank Abbott looking like he fell out of a 24/7 Arby's looking for a knuckle down on the corner of a street.

Frankie's biggest payday would be Conor, so of course he wants that fight. He's also earned that fight, and that great guy Dana White that you're bringing up also told him he had the fight and then went back on his word.

Jose Aldo never deserved to be stripped, he also never fought in other divisions, bouncing around like a jack-in-a-box. Oh, and why is that sunshine? Because when he did want to fight against Pettis at LW for the title and to make a superfight, what happened? Those great old "rules" that seem to no longer exist because of Conor, were in the way, right? Dana said, he has to relinquish that FW belt and go up. Yeah because little ol' Jose Aldo who makes chump change compared to GSP, Jones, Silva is going to risk going up a weight, giving his title away and possibly losing to a bigger man, then be left with no bargaining power at all.

In the words of Jim Calhoun... "Get some facts, and come back and see me"

 

[subMOA]

If a titleholder wants to fight on every card, more power to em, but if healthy, they should defend every six months, at least twice a year. It's looking like that's not going to happen.

 

[blazerkor]

Yeah, but you're silly here.

UFC 200 will have a heap of huge fights, it will do fantastic numbers anyway. Rumours of Jones, Ronda, GSP and the likes will easily be enough to make this card gigantic. It's a perfect time to slide in a fighter like Edgar, where he supposedly doesn't sell PPV's. Whomever Conor faces the fight will always be big, since when was Nate Diaz a proven PPV draw? This just comes of as an amateur opinion.

Conor needs to defend the belt, I don't want to hear money, entertainment, boring etc. etc.

Oh, and since when is being a real-life rocky, a former champion, a guy with more heart than a medical institute and the guy who KO'd the top contender in the division in his last fight - a boring fighter?

...

I'm silly... you just said that rumors would make people buy the PPV. Ronda isn't fighting until later in the year. Jones has a fight a little under three months prior and doesn't like fights on short notice but he's at least a possibility, oh and GSP rumors, those haven't panned out too well in the recent past. As far as Nate Diaz not being a PPV draw, he never had the chance before and it looks like he is. I was always one that would buy anything with a Diaz on it and I know I'm not alone. As far as your tribute to Frankie goes, when he us up against someone he can't bully or isn't half knocked out, he point fights with is little run buy leg trip things, he also has the personality of a rock, he is boring when compared to Nate Diaz, in and out of the ring.

 

[VIPERdude]

The answer to that is unequivocally NO. Jose Aldo twice held that belt up for over a year, pulling out of multiple planned bouts and no one was talking about stripping him. So why on earth, when the promotion is behind him and he is fighting/making the UFC money, would they strip him. We're not talking about a vote by Frankie Edgar, Max Holloway, Chad Mendes, Aldo and Ricardo Lamas. We're talking about what the UFC wants to do.

In fact the people who should be ashamed for holding up the division are those five guys. None of them have fights scheduled, none of them have fought since Conor won the belt, none of them are calling each other out and none of them are making the kind of noise that makes them the money fight. Should Frankie get the next shot immediately? Probably not, go out and beat Max Holloway or better Jose Aldo and then start whining, don't whine now. Call the other guys out and beat them. It's not the ultimate whining championship.

In that case...PLEASE make an argument why a fighter who is the champion, who has contenders in his weight class that can fight HIM and he can FIGHT back.........have to stay chilling on thier ass while thier champion fights in another weight class against someone he fought not once, but twice.......Id love to hear this

 

[The Schmoop]

It's a weird situation because the UFC suits are an active reason behind the belt not being defended. it's not like a string of multiple injuries or contractual stalemates are preventing the title from being defended. I'm sure Conor has it in writing that he won't be stripped while testing other weight classes. Personally, I think it's bullshit that he is allowed to freeze a division while he runs around getting his ass kicked by lightweights at Welterweight. Still blows my mind people wanted him to hold 3 titles.

 

[Death By Samson]

If he is able to fight then he is able to defend. If he takes consecutive fights at a higher weight class without ever having defended the title ONCE, then his "champion status" is a fucking joke. If he were injured fans would cut him some slack.

 

[Red Triangle]

Aldo was out for less than a year before they created an interim title, but Conor will not defend his title till next year, and nothing will be done about it.

 

[blazerkor]

How is fighting Max Holloway on some free card in New Jersey "making money while can"?

This isn't the fucking WWE, the guys with "the look" don't get pushed to the top. This is supposed to be a fucking sport right? With guidelines, uniforms, rankings etc. these things were all put in place to make this shit-show "legitimate" right? and not some fat fuck like Tank Abbott looking like he fell out of a 24/7 Arby's looking for a knuckle down on the corner of a street.

Frankie's biggest payday would be Conor, so of course he wants that fight. He's also earned that fight, and that great guy Dana White that you're bringing up also told him he had the fight and then went back on his word.

Jose Aldo never deserved to be stripped, he also never fought in other divisions, bouncing around like a jack-in-a-box. Oh, and why is that sunshine? Because when he did want to fight against Pettis at LW for the title and to make a superfight, what happened? Those great old "rules" that seem to no longer exist because of Conor, were in the way, right? Dana said, he has to relinquish that FW belt and go up. Yeah because little ol' Jose Aldo who makes chump change compared to GSP, Jones, Silva is going to risk going up a weight, giving his title away and possibly losing to a bigger man, then be left with no bargaining power at all.

In the words of Jim Calhoun... "Get some facts, and come back and see me"

You're a little frustrated. You gave me no facts just conjecture. There aren't any rules. The UFC will do what makes the most money. I actually think McGregor is opening doors for superfights to not have a punitive consequence to the fighter willing to venture out of their weight class. I'll give you a fact, due to what Conor has done in and out of the octagon he was the first UFC fighter ever to have a guaranteed, disclosed $1,000,000 show pay that's a fact. So I guess Max Holloway on Fox paid off.

 

[ocfightfan]

He won the belt 3 months ago, and the two top contenders at that weight, who had declared they would be ready, turned down the fight. If he hasn't defended in six months then I see a case, but given the number of champs who have been out for longer this boils down to hate.