UFC News: Conor McGregor stripped of the Lightweight Championship, as confirmed by Dana White

What’s the story?

In a latest interview with TMZ Sports, UFC President Dana White claimed that the UFC’s Lightweight Division is indeed ready to move on from “The Notorious” Conor McGregor as its champion and has somewhat confirmed the fact that the Irishman is indeed stripped off the 155-pound title, despite White himself refusing to use the term “stripped” in case of “The Notorious One”.

In case you didn’t know…

Conor McGregor captured the UFC’s Lightweight Title back in 2016 as part of the UFC 205 event at the MSG in New York City. McGregor, who defeated Eddie Alvarez in order to win the Lightweight Title, is, however, yet to defend the belt ever since winning it almost one and a half years ago.

The heart of the matter

While recently interacting with TMZ Sports, Dana White was asked about the current status of the UFC’s Lightweight Division and who the true king is of the 155-pound division, to which, White responded by publicly stating for the first time that Conor McGregor will indeed be demoted as the UFC Lightweight Champion and the upcoming title fight between Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov will be for the actual 155-pound world championship.

“I said in the last press conference, that fight will be for the title. It’s not for the interim title that fight is for the title.”- Dana White stated.

As noted, this will be the second time the UFC management will take away a world championship off of McGregor, having previously stripped him of the Featherweight Title, which the Irishman captured by defeating Jose Aldo in 2015.

Additionally, Dana White has also revealed McGregor’s reaction to being stripped of as the Lightweight Champion as White said, that McGregor, who has made a lot of money after his boxing bout against Floyd Mayweather, just wants some time off from the Octagon.

“He [Conor McGregor] wants some time off, but the division has to go on. And the business goes on.”- Dana White added.

What’s next?

It looks like we are finally about to witness the crowning of a new Lightweight Champion at the upcoming UFC 223 PPV when Interim Champion Tony Ferguson squares off with “The Eagle” Khabib Nurmagomedov at the Barclays Center in New York.

Author’s Take

Personally, as much as I like Conor McGregor, I think it was about time that the UFC had taken a final decision regarding the curious case of “The Notorious One” and the Lightweight Title.