Conor McGregor is looking to make history on Nov. 12 by becoming the UFC’s first simultaneous two-division champion, but the Irishman hasn’t decided if he’s going to give up a title.
McGregor originally said the UFC would “need a (expletive) army” to take one of the belts, but the featherweight champion changed his tune last month and said he’d be willing to cooperate.
However, during UFC 205’s media call, ‘The Notorious’ changed his stance once more and said he doesn’t know whether he’ll be able to vacate a title.
“Vacate? I don’t know, we’ll see about that,” McGregor said on Thursday, per MMA Fighting’s Shaun Al-Shatti. “Why not defend them both? I fight every week. I only fought last week. So, I can defend them both.”
McGregor is one of the most active fighters on the roster but has faced criticism for not defending the 145-pound belt. After knocking out then-champion Jose Aldo at UFC 194, the SBG Ireland product immediately announced his move up to the lightweight division to pursue a second world championship. McGregor accomplished a similar feat in Cage Warriors, capturing both the featherweight and lightweight titles in 2012.
McGregor believes people are looking too far ahead of UFC New York and says everyone should just enjoy the moment.
“I’m going to go out and put on a show and we’ll go from there,” McGregor said. “Everyone always looks ahead so much, talking about vacate the belt or let’s talk Vegas. It’s like, let’s enjoy this moment right now, because it took so long to get here. So many hours went into getting the UFC into New York City and now here we are. Now here we are, a potential two-weight world champion. A superfight, champion versus champion, first time a champion has gone up. These are all historic moments.
“Everyone is talking about after. ‘We’ve got to take that belt off of him, we’ve got to get back to Vegas.‘ Let’s just enjoy this historic moment for what it is. So that’s what I’m doing, I’m looking to enjoy this whole experience and I’m very confident in my preparation, very confident in my opponent that I’m facing, so I’m looking to just enjoy this whole process.”
UFC 205, which features Alvarez vs. McGregor in the main event, takes place on November 12 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
