Six Major Reasons Conor McGregor Needs To Defend His Title Right Away
On a day like today named Black Friday in America, where people trample each other to get better deals on Christmas gifts one day after supposedly giving thanks for everything they already have, there’s a far more dark and sinister scene playing out in the mixed martial arts (MMA) world, and that’s the absence of their biggest star Conor McGregor.
The UFC lightweight champion has been out of action since winning the title in what seems like forever ago at UFC 205 in November 2016. He spent the most of 2017 chasing and participating in his boxing super-circus with Floyd Mayweather, and while UFC President Dana White likes to say the UFC has never had a better year financially, it was because of a boxing match his biggest star got finished in.
As actual UFC numbers continue to dive, it’s clear that promotional owners Endeavor need him to get back in the Octagon as soon as possible, something that may not be all that easy to pull off given his demands for a promoter’s stake in his next fight.
But finances aside, there are many more ramifications for McGregor’s unnecessary stay on the sidelines, and it’s clearly hurting the fight game by having by far its biggest name without a fight for so long. Let’s take a look at the reasons McGregor needs to defend his 155-pound title now.
He’s Destroying A Potentially Historic Legacy:
This one will most likely be something McGregor doesn’t care about due to his hundreds of millions of dollars, but it has to at least be discussed.
‘The Notorious’ is undoubtedly damaging a legacy that could be up there with the best fighters of all-time if he simply practiced what he preached and defended his title against all comers. Instead, he’s chased ‘money fights’ after winning each belt, fighting in other weight classes and even another sport as he held respective divisions hostage with his antics.
He’s never defended a single title in his entire fight career, and it can be asked what is the point of even having titles if the UFC is going to let him win a belt then put it on the shelf for a year or more afterward. It’s getting old, and even the most fervent ‘Notorious’ supporters are running out of excuses for him, even if they won’t admit it on the Internet.
He could quiet all that by simply defending his title a couple times, but again, he most likely doesn’t care. 
Time To Stop Holding Up Divisions:
Building off the prior reason McGregor needs to defend the title, this one is a stark reality for not only the Irish megastar but also MMA as a whole.
He was stripped of the featherweight belt shortly after winning the lightweight title due to inactivity, but now he’s doing the same thing with the 155-pound belt. Interim champ Tony Ferguson has won an unheard-of 10 straight fights in the division, but it’s still uncertain if he will even fight McGregor to unify the belts next.
That’s a joke, and one that is counterintuitive to the foundational spirit of MMA. Featherweight and lightweight are two of the most talented, competitive divisions in MMA, and to hold either one up to the whims of a man who knows he can do whatever he wants just makes the UFC look bad and costs the fans legitimate – and potentially exciting – fights they want to see.
He can take all the big-money bouts he wants, but it’s time to strip him of the title and let the lightweight division move on if he’s not going to defend the belt. Instead, he just should. 
UFC PPV Numbers Are Tanking:
All of White’s boasting about the UFC’s financial successes of 2017 aside, the actual UFC pay-per-view numbers have been absurdly bad in 2017 after a 2016 where McGregor blew the roof off numbers with three cards in excess of one million buys. True, the UFC may have found a huge one-time windfall with Mayweather vs. McGregor, but that’s far from sustainable.
It was also co-promoted with SHOWTIME Sports while events like UFC 213, UFC 215, and UFC 216, which were in close proximity to the media circus of Mayweather vs. McGregor, earned some of the lowest UFC PPV numbers in history.
Not good for a company who paid $4.2 billion for the UFC in July 2016, and also not a good sign for a future that could definitely not include McGregor fighting in the Octagon.
They need to get a few final paydays out of their Irish golden goose, and he needs to defend a title while doing so. 
He’s Making MMA A Joke:
Expanding on the fact he’s held up two otherwise burgeoning divisions, McGregor is definitely spitting on the reputation of the UFC’s claim to put the best fighters against the best fighters to decide who the absolute cream of the crop is, and he’s making the sport look silly while doing so.
McGregor purists will point to all of the attention he’s brought the sport of MMA, and that cannot be denied. He’s brought it more widespread coverage than arguably any other star in the sport’s history, matched perhaps only by Ronda Rousey’s short, illustrious run at the top.
However, his behavior recently is undoubtedly doing more harm than good for MMA. How you ask? Well, let’s see: he was first criticized for being racist during his exhaustive four-city world tour to promote his fight with Mayweather, and then made more headlines for using a homophobic slur to describe his good friend Artem Lobov’s UFC Gdansk opponent Andre Fili.
Of course, those are only words from a man who can essentially do whatever he wants, but he took it to an all-new level with his overblown outburst at Bellator 187 where he rushed into the cage and pushed referee Marc Goddard and slapped a security guard. True, it may bring attention to MMA, but that’s not the kind of attention the sport needs as it tries to become more and more mainstream, and especially not the kind it needs from its (unwilling) public face who isn’t even actively fighting.
It’s been all sizzle and no steak with ‘The Notorious’ lately, and as a result, he’s making MMA a joke.
The Nate Diaz Trilogy Is Losing Steam:
Perhaps the biggest reason McGregor isn’t already signed to face Ferguson is his looming trilogy bout with archrival Nate Diaz after the Stockton bad boy submitted him at UFC 196 before McGregor got revenge with a close majority decision win at UFC 202.
The trilogy fight has been a foregone conclusion ever since then, but with both Diaz and McGregor on the sidelines asking for over-the-top paydays, it’s quickly losing steam by the minute.
Sure, Diaz brings a legion of faithful fans with him, but he’s a 19-11 fighter who is 3-4 in his last seven bouts and hasn’t won a fight at lightweight since December 2015.
It’d be a travesty to give him the title shot over Ferguson at this point, yet the UFC may be looking to get McGregor an even bigger farce of a match by booking Diaz against current welterweight champ Tyron Woodley at UFC 219 in hopes that the heavy underdog Diaz would somehow win to set up a fight where McGregor could laughably win a third UFC title.
But as is usually the case nowadays, Diaz wants a massive payday, and he seems to be pricing himself out of what would still be his biggest-ever fight purse. As time passes, many fans are realizing it’s Ferguson who deserves the shot, so Diaz could let his unwillingness to negotiate take away a career-defining haul, at least for now. 
Outright Hypocrisy:
The last, and possibly most impactful, reason McGregor needs to defend the title is the sheer hypocrisy with which he’s promoted by the UFC.
Dana White loves to say McGregor will ‘fight anyone at anytime,’ and maybe that was true when he took on Chad Mendes on two weeks’ notice to win the interim featherweight title back at UFC 189 in 2015.
Since then, he knocked out Jose Aldo to become the unified 145-pound champ and never defended the belt. Then he went 1-1 with Diaz to somehow earn a lightweight title shot, where he won another title he hasn’t defended. It’s looking like McGregor won’t fight anyone at anytime rather than the scenario in White’s bloviating praise. McGregor constantly offers rhetoric about the spirit of martial arts and his love and respect for the fight game, but those are being masked by his refusal to take any legitimate MMA bouts that in accordance with meritocracy.
It’s insulting the entire sport of MMA, and while you may or may not love the circus he’s concocted over the past year, the sport we all love is most certainly suffering for it.
There’s a quick fix, however, and all he has to do to make things right is defend his belt.
We’ll see if he does, or if he decides to chase yet another pointless ‘money fight’ that casual fans will eat up once again. What are your thoughts on the direction in which McGregor has sent MMA and the UFC?
