When Max Holloway was injured and forced out of his UFC 222 featherweight title defence against Frankie Edgar, the UFC scrambled to put together a short-notice fight worthy of a headline spot on a pay-per-view card.
The organization settled on women’s featherweight champ Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino welcoming Incivta FC champion Yana Kunitskaya to the UFC, and also set up a co-main event featuring Edgar and unbeaten 145-pound contender Brian Ortega.
However, according to Conor McGregor, the event could’ve had a far more high profile main event. The former featherweight and current lightweight champion claimed in an Instagram post Thursday that he offered to fill in for Holloway to save the card. McGregor hasn’t competed in the UFC since winning the 155-pound title in November 2016, so Thursday’s post came as a bit of a surprise to mixed martial arts fans and those involved in the sport.
“I am fighting again. Period,” McGregor wrote. “I am the best at this. I put my name forward to step in at UFC 222 to face Frankie Edgar when Max Holloway pulled out, but I was told there wasn’t enough time to generate the money that the UFC would need.
“I was excited about bouncing in last minute and taking out the final featherweight, without all the rest of the stuff that comes with this game. Please respect the insane amount of work outside the fight game that I have put in. On top of the fighting.”
McGregor made his Octagon debut in 2013 as a featherweight. He accumulated a 7-0 record in the UFC’s 145-pound weight class, including wins over current champion Holloway, Dustin Poirier, Chad Mendes and won the belt with a 13-second knockout of Jose Aldo at UFC 194 in December 2015.
The 29-year-old Irishman essentially cleared out the division but never faced Edgar, a former lightweight champion, future Hall of Famer, perennial title contender and a perceived stylistic mismatch for McGregor.
McGregor never attempted to defend the belt after beating Aldo and ultimately left the division, which is why Edgar’s trainer, Mark Henry, was critical of McGregor’s message in an Instagram post of his own. Henry said McGregor has ducked Edgar three times in the past and added both Edgar and Edgar’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, asked for a fight with McGregor when Holloway withdrew from the March 3 event.
McGregor, whose boxing match against Floyd Mayweather Jr. this past August was his only competition of 2017, is expected to return to the cage at some point in 2018 but an opponent has yet to be determined.
Interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson is set to face unbeaten No. 1 contender Khabib Nurmagomedov in the main event of UFC 223 in April. Although UFC president Dana White hasn’t made any official announcement, it’s expected McGregor will be stripped of his lightweight title and the winner of Ferguson-Nurmagomedov will be dubbed undisputed champ.
Facing either Ferguson or Nurmagomedov is a likely scenario for the UFC superstar, as is a trilogy bout with rival Nate Diaz.
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