Eddie Alvarez’s intriguing theory on why Conor still has his belt

Conor McGregor emphatically unified the UFC featherweight belt on December 12, 2015. The belt was stripped 336 days later after he failed to defend it and instead fought Nick Diaz twice at welterweight, and then fought and defeated lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez.

Notorious won the lightweight belt on November 12, 2016. Instead of defending the belt, he boxed Floyd Mayweather. That was 444 days ago, over 100 days longer than it took the UFC to strip the last belt. During a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, Alvarez offered an intriguing theory as to why Notorious is still holding onto his belt.

Interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson fights Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 223 on April 7, 2018, in Brooklyn, New York. UFC president Dana White said it would be for the undisputed belt. However, White wouldn’t say McGregor had or would be stripped.

I think on the day of the weigh-ins, they’re going to strip him,” said Alvarez, as transcribed by The42.ie. What’s going on is that this fight is 0-3. They’re not going to strip Conor of a belt and then have a vacant title for a fight that’s 0-3.

They have not been able to make this fight. Every time they book it, they’re not able to make the fight. Either Khabib gets hurt, Tony gets hurt or someone gets hurt. I think what the UFC is thinking — and this is just a theory, an opinion from my point of view — is that this fight is not going to happen.

There’s a very unlikely chance that it’s going to happen, so they’re not going to strip the champion, then have this fight fall through and then not have a champion. I think on the day of the weigh-ins, they’re going to strip him, it’s going to make real big news, and then they’re going to have a title fight. And that’s also going to make big news. So it’s going to make for a lot of publicity in one day.

We might have to wait until April 7 to find out. Or maybe Alvarez is right, and the fight falls through before then.