Shortly after the UFC 206 main event got scrapped due to injury, the UFC announced that Anthony Pettis vs Max Holloway will be for the interim featherweight belt. They also stated that Conor McGregor has “relinquished” his belt, and Jose Aldo will now have the full champion status.
As many expected, it actually really meant they have “stripped” him of the title, as McGregor didn’t really have much of a choice on the matter.
“It was more the UFC (who decided),” Kavanagh said in an appearance at the Red FM breakfast show (Transcribed by Severe MMA). “For me personally, I was very disappointed with how they went about doing it.”
“It was a very messy set of circumstances which led to doing it. They lost a main event and then they haphazardly threw together a new main event.
“They felt they had to make this for a title in order for it to sell so they brought in another interim title that Jose Aldo already has and then bumped Jose Aldo up to the current undisputed champion. Which just seems ridiculous to me.”
McGregor beat Jose Aldo in December of 2015. While he has fought three times outside the featherweight division, Kavanagh feels that short span of not defending doesn’t warrant being stripped of the title.
“Conor has only been 11 months since he won that title,” he said. “There have been many, many examples of fighters waiting 15 months, 18 months before defending it. He’s 11 months and they stripped him of it.
“I thought it was very shortsighted by the UFC how they went about doing it.”
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