Ben Askren believes Conor McGregor has changed the UFC landscape but not for the better. The former MMA star called out the trend of champions chasing belts in multiple weight classes instead of solidifying their reigns in a single division and blamed it squarely on McGregor.
Askren believes McGregor’s meteoric success as a two-division champion inspired other fighters to prioritize legacy and headlines over long title defenses. Unlike the days of dominant champions like Demetrious Johnson and Jon Jones, Askren says today’s champs are more focused on making history across divisions than building a legacy in their own weight classes.
During his weekly appearance on Daniel Cormier’s YouTube channel, Askren claimed that back in his day fighters were credited for defending their title multiple times.
“You think of the all-time greats, Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre… all defended their belts for a very long reign. And it’s actually kind of rare, we see that in mixed martial arts now. As far as defending your belt in the division for a long time, I feel like that is something we haven’t seen in kind of a long time.”
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McGregor famously became the first simultaneous two-division champion in 2016 after knocking out Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 and it propelled him into a stardom unlike the UFC had ever seen before. Henry Cejudo, Daniel Cormier, and Amanda Nunes followed suit.
This has inspired other champions in the UFC to aim for a two-division champion status. Not only does it put them in rarified air, but it also turns out to be a mega payday.
And now that featherweight champion Ilia Topuria wants to do exactly that, he cannot be blamed for trying.
Topuria aims to be out of MMA by 30
Combat sports is a fickle game. It’s a gamble that more often than not isn’t worth what it costs. But in the rare cases that it does pay off, you get the likes of Conor McGregor building an empire on the foundation they laid in the octagon.
Topuria (27), fresh off defeating the two biggest names in his division understands that better than most. Earlier this week, he admitted to losing motivation to stay at featherweight and talked about a move to lightweight, targeting former champion Charles Oliveira. He hopes a win against Oliveira would allow him to fight for his second title against lightweight champion Islam Makachev.
Not just that, he wants to be out of the sport at 30. The featherweight champion is already a star in Spain and after that performance against Max Holloway at UFC 308, he’s on the way to global stardom. So, it makes sense for him to fight the biggest names in the sport before he retires.
And right now, the biggest names in the sport are at lightweight. Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje, Charles Oliveira, Islam Makhachev, all these fighters are already legends in their own right.
If Topuria even gets to fight three of them, including a title match, he will have achieved everything the sport has to offer.
