It's not like Conor going up to LW & holding the FW belt has only being a recent thing/plan. He talked about it a long time before there was talk of rumours between him and Dana not seeing eye to eye anymore.
Think about an immediate rematch against Aldo. And think about what Conor had been complaining about - not fighting often enough. If there was an immediate rematch given to Aldo, you'd think July for 200 would be the date. Aldo's not exactly active in recent times and his pulling out record speaks for itself.
Thinking about it now, Conor has mentioned:
- at the open workout before the Aldo fight he wanted to fight regularly.
- before he left Ireland for the fight he said he'd believe Croke Park when he sees it.
- the Go Big press conference he seemed like he was having a breakdown more than anything. And I think that may be when he felt after all that had happened before 189 he wasn't getting paid enough.
- Dana vetoing him and Diego Sanchez fighting at 155 when the UFC first went to Mexico.
- mentioning that Dana didn't like his tattoos - why would he care?
- and after 194 Dana talked about Conor vacating the belt to go up to 145, then shortly afterwards Conor talking about not vacating it.
I think the Frank belt slam in anger has been put to rest. You can see the full reaction on one of the different camera angles on Fight Pass. It seemed like what Dana said and that he was shocked by the KO like everyone around him.
Botter talked about Conor being possibly the first fighter to fight under HBO - but where are the opponents going to come from? I think the whole co-promoting thing is nonsense.
Jordan Breen had talked about one big difference between Conor and Rousey being that Rousey will sign whatever contract is put in front of her, while Conor will negotiate. But who knows if that's true or who his "source" is.
