Conor McGregor has “relinquished” his featherweight title, the UFC announced Saturday night.
The move comes as a result of a shakeup to the UFC 206 fight card.
UFC 206, which takes place Dec. 10 in Toronto, was scheduled to be headlined by a light-heavyweight title fight between champ Daniel Cormier and top contender Anthony Johnson, however Cormier was forced off the card after suffering a torn adductor in his groin.
This left the UFC scrambling to find a new main event. Rather than finding a short-notice replacement opponent for Johnson, the organization decided to promote the co-main event — a featherweight scrap between top 145-pound contenders Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis — to the main event and put an interim title on the line.
The news was first reported by MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani.
McGregor knocked out Jose Aldo last December at UFC 194 to win the featherweight title but has never defended the belt. He fought Nate Diaz at UFC 196 in March and UFC 202 in August in back-to-back welterweight bouts and recently won the lightweight title by knocking out Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 earlier this month in New York.
While McGregor was in the midst of his series with Diaz, the UFC had Aldo and Frankie Edgar fight for an interim title at UFC 200 in July. Aldo won a unanimous decision.
With McGregor now relinquishing his title, this means Aldo becomes the “undisputed” 145-pound champ by default. It’s expected he will fight the winner of Holloway-Pettis sometime in 2017 even though the Brazilian has hinted that he may never fight for the UFC again.
