Conor McGregor has been put forward as an obvious contender for a world title at a new weight class in the UFC – if the promotion was to introduce it.

The UFC has been rumoured to add a 165lb division for years but the promotion are yet to introduce the weight class. Fighters looking to move up from lightweight to welterweight have to pile on a considerable 15lb, which is more than the usual 10lb that separates each weight class. McGregor has been told ahead of his comeback fight against Michael Chandler later this year that he could fight for the inaugural world title in the weight class.

“Somebody said the UFC was looking to add 165lb and move 170lb to 175lb because they want McGregor vs Chandler at the 165lb world title fight. If you do though, it has to be Conor, if you do 165lb, it has to be Conor. You are introducing a new weight class, it has to mean something. You can’t have two normal fighters introducing the weight,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel.

UFC boss Dana White has been dismissive of a 165lb weight class as he said back in 2018: “It just doesn’t make sense, never even considered it. If you make 165lb, you’re gonna start pulling people from the 170lb division. You’re going to see a lot of people from 170lb and 155lb that couldn’t win a title jumping to 165lb to try to fight for a title there.”

White believes that adding more UFC weight classes would dilute the quality of champions and make the promotion hard to keep up with for fans. Women’s featherweight was the last weight class to be added to the UFC, but the division has been abandoned since Amanda Nunes retired from fighting last year.

“Look, it didn’t work at 145lb when they did it for the women. It ended up being two people but you recall, Germaine de Randamie fought Holly Holm for that championship in Brooklyn, it wasn’t a great fight but Germaine de Randamie won the fight and refused to fight Cris Cyborg,” Cormier added.

“Nobody took it seriously until Cris Cyborg became the champion, and when Cyborg became the champion, it wasn’t the problem. The only reason why it worked was because it was Cris Cyborg. It would be the same thing if you add this belt with a guy without a name.”