The UFC lightweight division is a mess right now…
Following the rise of Conor McGregor to UFC featherweight and then lightweight champion, things have been very messy. Although not everything is a direct result of McGregor being champion, the situation at 155 pounds remains puzzling.
Once the Irishman had claimed the belt from Eddie Alvarez, we still had the impending Nurmagomedov vs. Ferguson clash to look forward to. Had these two top 155-pounders fought, at least the division would have stayed busy.
Weight Problems
Just 24 hours before the interim title tilt with Tony Ferguson, ‘The Eagle’ dropped out after terrible weight cutting issues. The problem now is that Ramadan is coming up, so Khabib won’t be fighting again until at least August-September time.
With a severe lack of active contenders, and the champion out on vacation, the 155-pound division suffers on. Ferguson demanded McGregor drop the belt if he’s wanting to fight Floyd Mayweather, but that’s probably not going to happen.
McGregor vs. Ferguson or Khabib
After being promoted to number one contender at lightweight, there’s a big chance Ferguson gets the next crack at McGregor. Unfortunately the timeline for this potential fight is impossible to estimate.
Therefore, ‘El Cucuy’ might need to fight again. According to UFC color commentator Joe Rogan, Ferguson is the only option. Rogan believes Khabib’s terrible weight cutting issues are the reason the UFC won’t book the Russian in to the title fight:
No Khabib Time
“You can’t, you can’t,” said Rogan. “And by the way, one of the things we talked about on the fight companion podcast we did the other day, we pulled up the Luke Rockhold quote, Luke Rockhold is his training partner.”
“And he was saying that he couldn’t get blood to his liver, that was something was going on. He was in deep pain because he wasn’t getting blood to his liver.”
“I was like, ‘Are you f**king kidding me?’ And this guy is going to do that again? He’s going to lose that weight again, after that? And apparently he said that he had the same problem in the Michael Johnson fight,” Rogan said.
“The Michael Johnson fight, he wound up getting down to 155 but he was having the same issue, where he wasn’t getting blood to his liver. Like, what the fuck man?”
