UFC lightweight champion Conor Mcgregor claimed he offered to step in and save UFC 222 after Max Holloway was forced to pull out from his headline bout with Frankie Edgar due to injury.
McGregor’s claim came as a huge shock to the MMA world, who haven’t seen the Notorious inside the Octagon since winning a lightweight title, also appears to be on the verge of finally having his title stripped. Later UFC president Dana White confirms the claims Conor McGregor made about UFC 222. But he didn’t comment at McGregor’s request for a shot at the non-existent 165 lb title.
Striking coach Owen Roddy broke down the detail about the prep leading up to this fight happening and backed up these claims while speaking to submission radio: (Quotes via BJPenn)
“I got the call from Conor [McGregor] almost a little under a month out, just kind of out of the blue, ‘Oh yeah, look, [Max] Holloway’s out of the fight, they’re looking for a replacement to fight Frankie so I’m up for it, I’m thinking of doing it’. So I was like, ‘well, alright, let’s see what the craic is,’ and we went in and he sparred. He hadn’t sparred too hard in a while, so like went in and had a good, tough spar with one of the guys similar to Frankie’s size, similar style and stuff like that, and then looked amazing. […] He got back the next day saying that the fight’s gone, that the fight was unavailable now. So yeah. But he was up for it and he was ready to go. And you know, he was putting it in as well. Conor’s been training up here, so he’s got the bug again which is great, but unfortunately that one didn’t come to pass.”
“It would had to have been a catch weight somewhere. You know, featherweight that close, it wouldn’t have really happened. So it would have had to have been maybe lightweight or somewhere thereabouts. There was talks about [165] as well. Yeah definitely, there was talks about maybe doing the fight for a new belt and stuff like that. Conor just said [the UFC is] bringing in a new belt, they’re hoping to bring in a new belt, so we might push for that. I don’t know whether they said it to him or he was just saying about, but that was in the air as well. […] I think that would have been good as well. You know, no big long build up to a fight, just straight in, straight back into the cage, the fight would have been on top of us. But obviously, unfortunately it didn’t come to pass. But who knows what’s down the road.”
McGregor’s bold claim was dismissed by Edgar’s manager Ali Abdelaziz, who claimed Irishman wanted the UFC brass to create a 165lbs belt in order to compete on the card.
Not long ago, former UFC middleweight title challenger Chael Sonnen has claimed Conor McGregor vs. GSP will happen next. So who knows we could see McGregor brawl Georges St-Pierre at 165-pounds and break records.
