Cub Swanson thrilled Conor McGregor isn’t champion anymore

Earlier this month, news surfaced that UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor had relinquished his featherweight championship. While his reign as a simultaneous two-division champ was certainly a short one, the Irish superstar still holds the UFC lightweight championship.

With the news of Conor McGregor relinquishing the title, interim featherweight champion Jose Aldo was promoted to the undisputed featherweight champion, and UFC 206’s co-main event bout between Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis was promoted to the main event, and made into an interim featherweight title fight. With that being said, Pettis missed weight by three pounds Friday afternoon, forcing the UFC to change the bout so that even with a victory, Pettis would be unable to claim the interim featherweight belt. While many fans criticized the UFC for forcing McGregor to relinquish a belt, only to have one of the main event fighters miss weight, UFC 206 fighter Cub Swanson is thrilled McGregor no longer reigns as the featherweight champ.

He spoke on The MMA Hour:

“I think a lot of people look at it like, oh man, this division sucks now, but I couldn’t be happier,” Cub Swanson said at the Ultimate Media Day on Thursday. “I think what he was doing to the division was ridiculous. I thought the way it was handled was stupid. There’s only one belt, and you hold it hostage for so long. We had a champion in [Jose] Aldo who has been dominant, and amazing, but he hardly fought.

“So if we’re lucky enough to get a fight with him, your next chance would be so far down the road. And then Conor comes in, wins, [you think] okay, this is exciting…and then he fights one time, and leaves the division for two different weight classes.”

“It just wasn’t fair to anybody else in the division,” he said. “It was like, why are we fighting? What is our end goal? We have nothing. So it was just, you know, you can look at it in different ways, but honestly, in my opinion, it was ridiculous. I’m glad to see our division rolling again, and I think you’re going to see exciting fights that people will appreciate.”