Trading Shots: If a UFC champ can't defend 2 belts, should she keep trying to win them?

In this week’s Trading Shots, retired UFC and WEC fighter Danny Downes joins MMAjunkie columnist Ben Fowlkes to discuss another champion’s plan to hold two UFC belts at once, and whether or not the first experiment in that department showed us the limitations of that ambition.

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Downes: Ben, Conor McGregor is still making waves during his MMA leave of absence. No, I’m not talking about that alleged boxing match you love discussing. I’m talking about his impact on women’s bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes.

In an interview with MMAjunkie, she said that she wants to hold two UFC titles simultaneously because, “Conor McGregor did it.” She’s also been using her social media to issue an open challenge to the winner of the upcoming UFC 208 headliner between Holly Holm vs. Germaine de Randamie that will decide the first UFC women’s featherweight champion.

As the moneyweight championship becomes increasingly significant in today’s UFC, why not two titles? McGregor never defended his featherweight championship while Nunes (14-4 MMA, 7-1 UFC) already has one successful defense, so she has “Mystic Mac” beat in that regard. From a promotional standpoint, this makes the most sense. Doesn’t it?

Fowlkes: Whew. For a moment there, I thought you were actually going to make me discuss the transparent posturing going on around that make-believe Mayweather stuff, and I could feel my blood pressure rising. But this, I can work with this. It’s at least somewhat tethered to reality.

First of all, this is a smart move by Nunes. The UFC has done almost nothing to promote its women’s bantamweight champ. I know that UFC President Dana White would have us believe that this inaction was actually just brilliant promoter-ing on his part, but in the wake of Nunes’ win over Ronda Rousey (12-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC), it still seems like the only push Nunes is going to get is the one she gives herself. And if you want to make headlines as a UFC champ, calling for a fight with the champ one division above you is a tried and tested way to do it.

What I wonder is, did McGregor’s foray into this territory accidentally expose all the problems with it? For years we’ve been listening to this superfight talk. Then McGregor does it, becoming the first UFC fighter in history to hold belts in two weight classes simultaneously, and now look.

McGregor was forced to “relinquish” one title. The one he kept has already been photocopied into interim form, all because he committed the sin of taking a few months off after carrying the whole damn company on his back in 2016. Yes, he’s still a star and he’s still sitting on piles of money, but the two-belt triumph seems like it was immediately undermined by the UFC itself.

I still think it’s a good idea for Nunes to take her shot with this, because even if you don’t get it you at least generate some free press, but did McGregor’s example show us that being a dual UFC champ is an unsustainable goal?

Downes: Much like the cronut, the concept of superfights sounds much better than the reality. That’s not to say what McGregor accomplished and what Nunes potentially could aren’t impressive. It’s just that they don’t have the cache I expected them to.

Given the schedule of the average UFC fighter, there’s no way to realistically be a two-division champion and not neglect one or both of the weight classes. You’re lucky to get two, maybe three title defenses a year from a champion. Therefore, you’d most likely see Nunes defend the bantamweight belt once and featherweight once. To put two divisions on hold like that doesn’t really do anyone any favors.

McGregor may be able to get away with it because he’s a star. Even when he fights Nate Diaz at welterweight for no apparent reason, he draws a crowd. Not everyone has that type of capital.

If Nunes wants to get her name out there, I don’t know if the two-division route is the way to go. By jumping divisions often, you fail to create any type of momentum in either. Yes, a poster of Nunes holding belts on each shoulder would look great visually, but I wonder if it would increase her presence. I suppose you could argue that if she has two divisions on lock, it would force the UFC to actively promote her more than it currently has. Even that’s suspect, though. Who’s to say we won’t get “Renan Barao is a monster!” all over again?

We’ve discussed the importance of belts in the past. Instinctively, you’d assume that two-division champions would heighten the importance of belts, but they’re doing the opposite. For one, they’re causing a rapid escalation of interim title fights. We’ve always been skeptical about interim titles in general, but their increased presence hurts the viability of the “true” title. Secondly, having one person on top of two divisions harms the interest of those respective divisions.

Look at women’s bantamweight. People were starting to get bored of Rousey’s dominance and thought the division was starting to become stale. Third and finally, how are you going to watch someone get beat up in one division, lose a title, and then watch her a couple months later defend a belt in another division?

Fowlkes: Somehow, your argument just convinced me that Nunes might be the perfect person to do the two-division champ thing and do it well. So, in that sense, I guess you were successful. Or the opposite of that.

Think about it, Danny. If you’re not going to get more than two or three title defenses per year out of most champs, and if defending belts across two weight classes means cutting that number further, then logically the only divisions where it might make sense are ones with a relative lack of contenders. And brother, that perfectly describes the UFC’s nascent women’s featherweight class. It’s not an inaccurate description of women’s bantamweight at the moment, either.

Ask yourself, who must Nunes face next? Who’s the contender who simply cannot be ignored? Ask yourself that question in either the women’s bantamweight or featherweight divisions. One is trying to reset after losing two famous fixtures, and the other is just getting off the ground. This might be the only place where a two-division champ could actually handle the workload, at least for a little while.

You know what? That does it. I’m all for this idea. I don’t like it. No, Danny, I love it. And, in a way, I have you to thank.

Downes: You’re welcome?

Ben Fowlkes is MMAjunkie and USA TODAY’s MMA columnist. Danny Downes, a retired UFC and WEC fighter, is an MMAjunkie contributor who also writes for UFC.com and UFC 360. Follow them on twitter at @benfowlkesMMA and @dannyboydownes.