Daniel Cormier is not responsible for Conor McGregor’s lack of a featherweight belt but one would imagine that ‘The Notorious’ would still have his title if not for the turn of events that took place last week.
Cormier’s withdrawal from UFC 206 with an injury left the organisation scrambling for a main event worthy of a pay-per-view. You had Max Holloway vs. Anthony Pettis but a bout between ranked featherweights would never have had the requisite drawing power.
So the promotion decided to make that bout an interim title fight but there was one problem – Jose Aldo was the interim champion.
There was one solution that problem and it came with the decision to take McGregor’s featherweight title away from him, promote Aldo to undisputed champion and place the interim title on the line for the new Holloway vs. Pettis headliner.
Sure, Cormier put the wheels in motion by unfortunately injuring himself two weeks ahead of fight night but you’d hardly call him culpable.
However some were more than happy to play the blame game with the reigning UFC light heavyweight champion.
https://twitter.com/mma_orlando/status/802720986302976000
look what you have done. Jose Aldo new featherweight champion
— Conor McGregor News (@ConormcGregor5) November 27, 2016
@dc_mma Bitch! Just because of you McGregor got stripped.
— cyrrruz1999 (@cyrrruz1999) November 26, 2016
Because of @dc_mma Mcgregor is getting stripped of the featherweight belt
— #UFC297 🇨🇦 (@ItsQasim) November 26, 2016
Cormier addressed the issue on the MMA Hour on Monday night.
“Just think about how ridiculous that is, that it’s my fault Conor McGregor got stripped,” Cormier said.
“The reality is I don’t care. I don’t care if they took his belt. I don’t care if they take all of his belts. What do I care?
“Conor’s a great guy but I really don’t care what happens to him.
“I didn’t say ‘I’m not going to fight so he can lose his belt.’ It doesn’t matter to me!
“I’ve seen some of the tweets and stuff like that. Conor has very passionate fans but I can only take care of myself and care about the people that I care about.
“I can’t worry about the domino effect for a guy that lives in Ireland.”
The abuse that ‘DC’ has received has been, quite frankly, absurd as it is to suggest that his decision to pull out of the December 10 bout was not only intentional, but that he did so with the express intent of forcing McGregor to relinquish one of his world titles.
Cormier is an unashamed McGregor fan and that was made abundantly clear during that same interview.
“What Conor did is the most amazing athletic feat that I think I’ve ever seen,” Cormier continued.
“Nobody can do that. You don’t do that. You don’t win across two or three weight classes the way that he did and not be applauded for it.
“But it’s done now so either go back down and defend that belt or give it up.
“He can fight at 155lbs, the guy’s a sniper. He’s got the death blow in his left hand, he hits you and you fall down.
“He can do whatever he wants. It really doesn’t affect him. It probably affects the fans more than it affects Conor at this point because what’s done is done. He is a two-division champion like he said.
“The guy was not afraid to look like a fool if this didn’t work out in the way that he said that it would but it did so hat’s off to him.”
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