Ferguson demands McGregor forfeit belt after Mayweather announcement
With his boxing bout with Floyd Mayweather finally official, Conor McGregor is leaving a lot of rivals wondering what's next for them.
No. 2-ranked UFC lightweight contender Tony Ferguson took to Twitter on Thursday to congratulate Mayweather and McGregor, and also request "The Notorious" give up the 155-pound belt if he is not planning to defend it anytime soon:
Congrats @FloydMayweather & @TheNotoriousMMA On The Big Money Fight🥊Time To Give Up My Belt #DefendOrVacate Let A Real Champ Defend It
— Tony Ferguson (@TonyFergusonXT) June 15, 2017
McGregor took the belt off of Eddie Alvarez last November, but has yet to author a single title defense. He took time off to tend to the birth of his first child and is now making a move away from the Octagon to box Mayweather on Aug. 26.
In the meantime, Ferguson was supposed to fight No. 1-ranked contender Khabib Nurmagomedov for an interim championship at UFC 209, only to see that bout fall through when Nurmagomedov was removed due to an illness the day before the event. "El Cucuy" has won his last nine contests and he is 12-1 inside the Octagon.
The UFC previously stripped McGregor of a featherweight belt when he moved up a division to fight Alvarez, but have made no indication that they plan to do the same with his lightweight strap.