Gegard Mousasi: Conor McGregor doesn’t deserve title shot

Tonight, UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor will take the Octagon against UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez in a historic title fight that could see McGregor cement his place in the UFC’s history books as he could potentially become the first simultaneous two-division UFC champion.

The way top ranked UFC middleweight Gegard Mousasi sees it however, McGregor shouldn’t be in this position. He spoke to MMAWeekly:

“Some fighters have fought for the belt that they didn’t even deserve to fight for the belt.”

“The guy (McGregor), he went a division up high and gets a chance that he didn’t deserve. He lost one and the other one was an unimpressive win. You tell me, did he deserve to fight for the belt? But he’s getting the chance.”

“He has a big mouth and a country behind him,” said Mousasi. “Conor McGregor has Ireland behind him. People are always going to show up for his fights. A lot of circumstances (go into determining who gets a title shot): where you’re from, if you speak English. A lot of things have to do with whether you fight for the belt or not,” he said.

“It’s more of a popularity contest now.”

While McGregor is currently set to fight Eddie Alvarez tonight, it appears as though he is looking to set himself up for a welterweight fight with welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, who is set to defend the welterweight title against Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson tonight in the co-main event.

Throughout the course of fight week, McGregor & Woodley have been involved in several tense moments. The first of which came at the UFC 205 press conference, when McGregor stated that he was coming to take ‘all the belts’ on the table at the event, which included Woodley’s welterweight championship.

In addition, McGregor and Woodley were involved in two pre-fight altercations, which resulted in a security officer having to hold McGregor back during the second encounter near the time of the UFC 205 ceremonial weigh-ins.

With both men currently set to fight at UFC 205, do you think they will ever step into the Octagon together?