Conor McGregor was never going to miss out on the UFC’s debut at Madison Square Garden.
Ever since he arrived in the UFC, McGregor had his eyes on history. Having left the Cage Warriors promotion as a two-weight world champion, the Dubliner targeted the UFC featherweight and lightweight divisions.
He claimed the featherweight strap by taking Jose Aldo out at UFC 194. He had a tilt at lightweight gold lined up at UFC 196 before former champ Rafael Dos Anjos succumbed to injury. It has taken eight months – featuring two great battles with Nate Diaz – but McGregor is finally set for his 155 lbs debut in the promotion.
Eddie Alvarez is now the lightweight champion but McGregor has backed himself to get the job done in the first round.
During a Facebook Live interview with BT Sport, McGregor actually revealed he was due to fight someone else at UFC 205. Had Frankie Edgar, a stablemate of Alvarez, defeated Aldo at UFC 200 to capture the interim featherweight belt, The Notorious would have faced off against him. McGregor said:
“If Frankie had’ve won that fight then he would have been here but he was just not good enough.
“That was it and I mean no disrespect because I have nothing against him either. He just wasn’t good enough.Â
“How am I supposed to get excited for that, with the Aldo situation, but I knocked him out with one shot; 13 seconds.”
Edgar is on the UFC 205 card but not the main one. The New Jersey native will be taking on Jeremy Stephens as a scene-setter at MSG.
Had he taken Aldo down, McGregor would have been worrying about staying atop a division he has already claimed to have cleaned out.
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