Why the Featherweight belt shouldn't be vacated.

[Diarico]

Think about when Aldo had the belt, how often did he defend it? Velasquez defended about once a year. But Conor's expected to defend within 6 months or vacation of belt? Heck he could wait until November/December if he wanted to - but because he fights in between it means it should be vacated(!?). If a fighter wins a belt in January and defends it in August, whether he fights in between or not doesn't make a difference to when he's defending it in that case.

 

[Tony Ferguson]

Its true, I've never understood the people saying he should vacate the belt like he didn't just win it 4 months ago.. Lol

But hey, its Conor we're talking about here, everyone only feels so strongly about the FW belt because of him

 

[King Joffery]

I agree, ridiculous that people want him stripped when he only won it less than 4 months ago. Why should fake injuries get a pass? There should be a general rule for how soon you must defend your belt within regardless of circumstances, if you are genuinely injured? Tough shit, just win it back when you are healed rather than hold the division up.

 

[Giovanefugazza]

You have a champion who is ready to fight, twice, but won't fight and defend his belt.

It is a big fuck you to the entire featherweight division

 

[Venom]

I think the fact that Conor has a road very smoothly paved for him to go for a second title makes people hate the that the UFC is largely ignoring a fight at 145.
Aldo overextended and was put out quickly. That is rare in combat sports and even rarer for a longtime champ.

I don't think an immediate defense is necessary for everyone but July is a good time to defend. We can't use Aldo as the sole metric to judge how often a champ should be allowed to go before defending.

Conor lost to a 5th or so ranked LW. Unless he wants to fight Pettis or Barbosa or somebody at FW to pass the time it would be dumb to just keep stalling.

 

[eiyuu]

If he's fighting but not defending the belt, he doesn't deserve it.

Defend the belt or give it up.

 

[Minnja]

Aldo gets bitched at for dropping out of fights but he at least defended 1x a year, and typically defended 2x a year. Conor if he fights above FW in July likely won't defend in 2016 or if he does it will just be 1 defense. So, if Aldo got bitched at then Conor definitely should. And Aldo didn't fight at FW because he would get injrued, Conor simply just does not feel like it.

 

[Venom]

Conor doesn't have to vacate the belt.

I think people are jumping the gun.

A filler fight like Conor vs Barbosa or Cub Swanson sound great.

After THAT if the UFC doesn't even mention defending then it'll be quite sad.

 

[Humbaba the Terrible]

You have a champion who is ready to fight, twice, but won't fight and defend his belt.

It is a big fuck you to the entire featherweight division

Nah, not really. Maybe a big fuck you to Frankie, but Aldo pulling out of fights and robbing guys of their opportunities at title shots was a bigger fuck you to the division.

McGregor haters need to chill. Just root for him to lose like any sane fan. But hoping for him to be stripped this soon after he legit won the belt is lame.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

I agree, ridiculous that people want him stripped when he only won it less than 4 months ago. Why should fake injuries get a pass? There should be a general rule for how soon you must defend your belt within regardless of circumstances, if you are genuinely injured? Tough shit, just win it back when you are healed rather than hold the division up.

Fake injuries?

 

[Zefram Cochrane]

Get your facts straight, TS. Before 2015 Aldo defended on average twice year except one year.

In 2015 he was ready to go in spring but that was delayed in favor of the world tour. After the injury he asked the fight to be posponed to September or October.

 

[TheVaado]

Think about when Aldo had the belt, how often did he defend it? Velasquez defended about once a year. But Conor's expected to defend within 6 months or vacation of belt? Heck he could wait until November/December if he wanted to - but because he fights in between it means it should be vacated(!?). If a fighter wins a belt in January and defends it in August, whether he fights in between or not doesn't make a difference to when he's defending it in that case.

Lol, no.

That's like saying skipping school for a week is the same as being out sick for a week. One is avoidable the other isn't. Conor needs to defend his belt, period.

 

[Tony Ferguson]

I agree, ridiculous that people want him stripped when he only won it less than 4 months ago. Why should fake injuries get a pass? There should be a general rule for how soon you must defend your belt within regardless of circumstances, if you are genuinely injured? Tough shit, just win it back when you are healed rather than hold the division up.

I disagree..

Injuries happen, you shouldn't be stripped and have to win YOUR belt back because you got hurt

Yea if you're going to be out like Cruz was for 3 years then they should strip you to keep it moving, but not a matter of months or even a year imo

Fighters like Cowboy & Conor have casuals thinking belts should be defended every month or you should be fighting every 2 weeks, not realizing how long we used to have to wait lmao

 

[Fullmount Triangle]

the difference between aldo and mcgregor is that it was pretty much agreed upon that, evne if aldo was injured, he was coming back to defend the title. Mcgregor will have had two fights outside of the division and clearly has no intention of ever going back. He said he would, then he fought nate diaz again. It's not so much the time frame as it is the fact that McGregor isn't looking to fight at featherweight again. Dominick Cruz was stripped when he had no timetable for return to the division, Frank Mir got much less time than Cruz did because Cruz was scheduled for a few fights that unfortunately fell through. Mir got into a motorcycle accident and it wasn't known whether or not he'd ever come back.

McGregor is indicating that he's not going back to FW, he's just holding the belt to hold the belt at this point, and the UFC is keeping it on him to keep marketing his fights as "UFC Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor vs x"

 

[Ryan McGizzle]

I think Nate should cut to 145 and take the belt from him.

 

[GrantB13]

Conor is CHOOSING to take other fights. THAT'S the difference and I don't understand why some people are ignoring that. He could sign the papers right now to fight Edgar but instead he's off looking for fights in a higher weight class and lost but is now looking for the rematch.

 

[CTYankee]

Think about when Aldo had the belt, how often did he defend it? Velasquez defended about once a year. But Conor's expected to defend within 6 months or vacation of belt? Heck he could wait until November/December if he wanted to - but because he fights in between it means it should be vacated(!?). If a fighter wins a belt in January and defends it in August, whether he fights in between or not doesn't make a difference to when he's defending it in that case.

Then explain why they created an interim belt for Conor when Aldo had defended 8 months earlier or is that inconvenient to your argument?

 

[Grenz]

Think about when Aldo had the belt, how often did he defend it? Velasquez defended about once a year. But Conor's expected to defend within 6 months or vacation of belt? Heck he could wait until November/December if he wanted to - but because he fights in between it means it should be vacated(!?). If a fighter wins a belt in January and defends it in August, whether he fights in between or not doesn't make a difference to when he's defending it in that case.

Defending the belt once a year isn't the norm. You made a generalization based on literally the two most injury prone champions of the last ten years. Two defenses per year is normal, 3 is not unheard of.

Anyway, if Conor actually had won the LW title, this would all be fine. Keep the FW belt, keep switching between defending it and the LW belt. The problem is that he doesn't have the LW belt, worse actually, he got his ass handed to him at LW. If he chooses to keep fighting at LW, he should vacate, since it's not fair to the rest of the FWs. What's the plan here? Beat Diaz, then fight RDA? K, that'll take up to a year. Let's say he'll defend the FW belt after that, so let's say 16 months from now. Do you think it's good for the division and the sport as a whole when a belt goes undefended for almost two years?

The special treatment right now needs to be limited. We all get he's still a huge draw, so he gets perks others don't. That's fine. But being allowed to leave an entire division in limbo is ridiculous, especially when there's not even a clear path. The question right now should be: 'is Conor defending against Aldo or Frankie', not 'in what division will Conor fight in next?'. We already saw how that turned out, if he wants to prove redeem himself at LW he should put everything into it and move to LW permanently.

 

[Jarvan]

Think about when Aldo had the belt, how often did he defend it? Velasquez defended about once a year. But Conor's expected to defend within 6 months or vacation of belt? Heck he could wait until November/December if he wanted to - but because he fights in between it means it should be vacated(!?). If a fighter wins a belt in January and defends it in August, whether he fights in between or not doesn't make a difference to when he's defending it in that case.

You forgot it's conor though. He has to fulfill his fans and his haters, or else, more hate.

 

[Grenz]

Because Aldo got injured so close to the fight.. Explained.

Yes, because whenever a champion is injured close to the fight, an interim belt is created