Coach Kavanagh explains why stripping Conor McGregor of FW title was a “ridiculous” move by UFC

Earlier this month, in the main event of UFC 205, Conor McGregor knocked out Eddie Alvarez to win the UFC lightweight title. Because he already owned the UFC featherweight title, this defeat of Alvarez made him the first fighter in UFC history to hold belts in two divisions simultaneously.

Just weeks later, shortly after the UFC 206 main event got cancelled, the UFC announced that the card’s Max Holloway vs. Anthony Pettis co-main event would be for the interim featherweight title, and that Jose Aldo had been promoted from interim champion to undisputed champion. This, of course, meant that McGregor had been stripped of the featherweight belt – or as they put it, he’d “relinquished” it.

In a recent interview on the Red FM Breakfast Show (transcribed by Severe MMA), McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh weighed in on this strange twist.

“It was more the UFC [who decided],” he said. “For me personally, I was very disappointed with how they went about doing it.”

“It was a very messy set of circumstances which led to doing it,” he continued. “They lost a main event and then they haphazardly threw together a new main event.”

“They felt they had to make this for a title in order for it to sell so they brought in another interim title that Jose Aldo already has and then bumped Jose Aldo up to the current undisputed champion. Which just seems ridiculous to me.”

“Conor has only been 11 months since he won that title,” a frustrated Kavanagh continued. “There have been many, many examples of fighters waiting 15 months, 18 months before defending it. He’s 11 months and they stripped him of it.”

“I thought it was very shortsighted by the UFC how they went about doing it.”

Needless to say, McGregor’s coach is not particularly impressed with the way the UFC crept in and burgled his fighter’s belt. What do you think of the UFC’s choice to strip McGregor of the featherweight title? Sound off, PENN Nation!