Stephen Thompson cautions Conor McGregor on moving to 170

Throughout the course of fight week leading up to UFC 205, where Conor McGregor was slated to fight Eddie Alvarez for the UFC lightweight championship, McGregor was involved in several backstage altercations with UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley.

The first incident, which set the stage for the rest of the pair’s run-ins throughout the week came at the UFC 205 press conference, where McGregor stated that he was coming for all the belts on the table, which included Woodley’s welterweight championship.

The following day, the pair were caught on camera having a heated impromptu staredown during the early weigh-ins when Woodley walked past McGregor without acknowledging the Irish superstar. This then led to a Twitter feud, which saw McGregor call Woodley a “bitch” several times, despite the welterweight champ warning him against doing so.

The following incident took place backstage the same day, around the time of the UFC’s ceremonial weigh-ins, as cameras caught security guards being forced to get between the pair as McGregor continued to yell insults at Woodley, including calling him a “bitch” once again.

After winning the lightweight championship in the main event, McGregor toyed with the idea of moving up to 170 to chase the UFC welterweight championship. The way top ranked welterweight Stephen Thompson sees it however, the move is an ill-advised one for McGregor.

He spoke to Fox Sports:

“To be honest with you, Conor McGregor at 170, I think he’s just going to be thrown around like a little rag doll,” Thompson told Damon Martin of FOX Sports on the Fight Society podcast. “The weight class is just so much bigger. I didn’t expect Tyron to be as strong as he was. He’s a thick dude, short but think and very strong opponent.

“If that ever did happen, he’s going to have his hands full with Tyron, let me tell you that.”

With that being said, Thompson says that if McGregor did move to 170, he would certainly welcome a fight with the Irish superstar:

“Are you kidding? Heck yeah,” Thompson said. “Anybody who fights McGregor is going to have a good payday. He’s one of the best guys in the UFC. He’s got two belts. You’re out there to fight the best guys, but it is kind of a lose-lose situation,” Thompson explained. “You go out there and you defeat Conor and everybody will be like ‘you should have beat him.’ What did you think was going to happen?

“But if you lose? So it’s a lose-lose situation to go out there and fight somebody like that.”