Those who say Conor McGregor hasn’t fought in way too long, would technically be wrong. That’s because he’s coming off that historic boxing bout against Floyd Mayweather, which was indeed a tough fight. However, having not returned to MMA action in some time, he now has broken one of the UFC’s most unflattering records for a champion.
On November 12, 2016 Conor McGregor knocked out Eddie Alvarez to win the UFC’s lightweight world title. At the same exact moment he became the UFC’s first ever two-division simultaneous world champion. A record that won’t soon be broken.
However, as a result of that Eddie Alvarez title win, Conor McGregor is now in the record books for a bad UFC record, and as the days go on, he continues to expand on that record, making it more and more unflattering, and also making it more and more difficult for another UFC champion to beat.
McGregor has now gone the longest in UFC history without defending his belt.
The record was previously held by former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir, who went 418 days without a title defense after his tragic motorcycle accident that nearly retired him. Mir though, defied the odds, and came back to defend the belt as soon as he was physically able.
The same cannot be said for Conor McGregor, who has been healthy the entire time he’s been absent.
The UFC has stripped all other champions who have approached this milestone, but McGregor is a special circumstance, and is worth more as a champion than a contender.
Still though, even the UFC has their limits when it comes to Conor McGregor, and they’ve put a deadline on his return to action.
Recently, Dana White told Yahoo Sports, “As long as Conor is willing to fight by March, we could do Khabib versus Tony and then the winner fights Conor for the title. If Conor wants to sit out until next fall, then we’d have to make Khabib versus Tony for the title, not the interim title.”
As far as where McGregor stands, he’s been pretty clear with his demands for a UFC return, recently listing them and explaining what it will take for the UFC to get him back, “We’re in the contract negotiation stage. It’s got to, they’ve got to entice me now because, I came from a billion-dollar fight. I want equity, I want pay-per-view. I want to be a true partner. You have to entice me now. I want to be a partner. I want to be a promoter and I want to be a fighter for me to continue.”
If Conor is stripped of a second world title, he will be just the second man in UFC history to be stripped twice. The first is Jon Jones, who’s been stripped a record breaking three times. Not the best company to keep.
So while the future of Conor McGregor in the UFC is presently unknown, one thing is certain, his record keeps growing day by day.
