Innan Conor McGregor gick returmatchen mot Nate Diaz under UFC 202 i augusti, berättade Dana White att irländaren efteråt skulle bli tvungen att antingen försvara sitt fjäderviktsbälte mot forne mästaren Jose Aldo eller släppa titeln.
McGregor blev sedan matchad mot Eddie Alvarez för chansen att ta hem lättviktsbältet och bli den första fightern att bli mästare i två viktklasser i UFC.
Ett flertal andra fighters har protesterat mot detta och menar att det är dags för McGregor att släppa bältet, om han inte försvarar det i sin nästa match.
Chael Sonnen är dock en utav de som vill att irländaren ska få den här chansen och anser att andra fighters är avundsjuka.
Det här berättade Sonnen via ’Beyond the Fight’:
I’ve never heard anybody come out and speak on Conor’s behalf and say he ought to be able to hold that belt. I’m sure there’s people who think that, but I’ve never heard anyone say it – from the media to the TV, I’ve never heard anyone say it.
Now we’ve got fighters in weight classes that have no standing in this matter, who I imagine is just coming from a standpoint of jealousy, and they’re saying, ‘You should strip him. Gotta strip him, gotta move that division on.’
I can’t believe people don’t understand this who are in the industry. To acknowledge how dumb fighters are, and I’m not trying to insult them, there’s just not another word out there – they’re dumb. To understand a fighter’s lack of understanding of the business standpoint – how important media partners are and understanding what a promoter – they don’t get it.
I’ll take the mask off and I’ll tell you guys what’s going on here. There’s a historic opportunity if Conor beats Eddie Alvarez. The opportunity is that he will be the first guy in history to hold two world championships simultaneously in the UFC. It has never happened before.
If you are the UFC and through the power of the pen you take one of those belts away, you also lose the opportunity that so much media is running with to have the historic opportunity. If you wait to strip him or make a decision in that weight class til after the fight, you preserve that opportunity. That is so obvious. The UFC can’t come out and say that there’s a marketing opportunity there, because then they lose it.
UFC 205 äger rum i New York den 12 november.
