Last week the court hearing finally took place after a continuance amongst other things for the brawl that took place after UFC 229 between UFC Lightweight Championship Khabib Nurmagomedov, his camp, and Conor Mcgregor. While Khabib's punishment is lengthy with a 9-month suspension unless he participates in an Anti-Bullying PSA to cut the sentence down to 6 months he must pay a fine of $500,000. Khabib will be gone for the remainder of 2019 as he said he would make his return in November and would no longer fight in Las Vegas.
But what does this mean for the belt? In most cases like this the Champion is stripped or an Interim Title fight is proposed but realistically the #1 ranked Lightweight in the division "El Cuyuy" Tony Ferguson is still the Interim Title holder. Dana White and the organization are known for not waiting for anyone to defend a belt especially when it comes to someone who will be shelved for 9 months. It is essentially like the Light-heavyweight Divisions previous situation when Jon Jones was suspended and stripped of his title due to suspension before he came back to reclaim the gold for the 3rd time.
#3 ranked lightweight former champion Conor Mcgregor will be eligible to return to the octagon in April in a fight that is pretty much booked. Conor Mcgregor and #9 ranked Lightweight Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone verbal agreed to a fight after the dominant performance Cowboy had at UFC Fight Night 143 and it can happen a lot sooner than expected. It is still pretty unclear on what the UFC will potentially do with champ Khabib but at this point is almost seems like they will need to move forward with the division.
There are fighters in the Lightweight division who rightfully deserve to fight for the title regardless or not if it is up against the undefeated champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. #3 ranked Lightweight Dustin Poirier came out recently and said: "I will not fight unless it's Ferguson or Mcgregor" which would be rightfully earned when you consider his last few finishes. Finishes over Justin Gaethje, former Lightweight champ Anthony Pettis, and former Lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez as he had spectacular performances in each fight.
The #1 ranked Lightweight Tony Ferguson would be the ideal title holder but there needs to be some kind of fight put together for that bout. While Conor Mcgregor will be booked more than likely with "Cowboy" Cerrone it would make sense book a fight between Dustin Poirier and "El Cuyuy" Tony Ferguson for the vacant UFC Lightweight title. With proper title contenders in the division, it will be interesting to see how the rest of 2019 plays out for the division. Especially when it comes to #4 ranked Al Iaquinta who already had a 5 round fight with Khabib last year as Al is still in the mix for a title fight also. There are too many top contenders in a stacked Lightweight division to know exactly what will happen we will just have to wait and see how the year plays out without Khabib Nurmagomedov.
