Conor coach: Forget 145, for now
Last weekend’s fight is now history, so I would appeal to Conor’s fans to show respect to Jose Aldo, who has been a great champion for many years.
Prior to the fight with Jose Aldo, Conor McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh had said he thought that would be the Irishman’s final fight at 145. However, in his latest blog for the42.ie, the SBGI founder said McGregor was only done “for now.” The team now wants it all – a lightweight title fight in the spring, and a featherweight title defense in the summer.
If successful, that would make McGregor only the third fighter to win belts in two divisions in UFC history, and the first to do it the same time. Randy Couture was the first in 2007, and BJ Penn the second in 2008.
Last weekend’s fight is now history, so I would appeal to Conor’s fans to show respect to Jose Aldo, who has been a great champion for many years. The fight was big, but it’s just sport at the end of the day. I know the build-up can sometimes make it seem bigger than that, but it’s not.
It was great to see so many fans on both sides getting behind their guy before and during the fight, but once the contest is done and dusted, the winning side should focus on praising the winner. Don’t spend any energy on slagging off the loser by sending horrible messages to him or his family.
Being badly knocked out like that is not a pleasant experience. Aldo needs time to recover from that and with what he has achieved in the sport at this stage, that’s the least he deserves.
It was the same after Ronda Rousey’s loss to Holly Holm. That’s a young lady who was kicked in the head, knocked out and embarrassed in front of the world. Use your energy to tweet congratulations to Holly Holm instead of creating a meme to ridicule Ronda.
What’s next for Conor? The lightweight belt. We’re going to take a little break from that cut down to 145lbs, even though this was one was the easiest so far. But in saying that, ‘easy’ is a relative term. It still requires a level of discipline that 99.9% of people wouldn’t have, never mind be able to compete as well the following day.
So the next step will be winning the title in the 155lbs division. The current champion, Rafael dos Anjos, defends the belt against Donald Cerrone tomorrow night. Regardless of who comes out on top, we’ve been given the green light to fight the winner.
We believe that’ll be in April but I’m looking forward to this weekend’s fight too. I’ll be watching eagerly to see who it is. I’m expecting a close fight but if I was to bet — which I won’t — I’d say Rafael dos Anjos will win it.
If Frankie Edgar wants a shot at the featherweight title or Aldo wants a rematch, we’re fine with that too. But they’ll have to wait, because that lightweight belt is next on the agenda.