Does Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) play favorites?
If you didn't already know that answer to that question, Andre Pederneiras, wants to have a word with you. During his conversation with Sherdog, Andre revealed that he lobbied to the UFC higher-ups to let Jose Aldo compete for the Lightweight title while he was Featherweight champion.
A request that was shot down repeatedly over the course of four years.
So you can see why he isn't to happy that Conor McGregor was allowed to move up to 155-pounds after his first request, all while being allowed to hold on to his 145-pound title.
His words (transcribed by Bloody Elbow):
"Concerning Aldo, we are just waiting to see what the future holds right now since McGregor has been allowed to keep the 145 title while being able to fight or the 155 title. That is something that hasn't happened before. I spent four years asking the UFC the same thing, to allow Aldo to keep his featherweight belt while going up and contesting at lightweight but it was never allowed. Now we see Conor get the OK on his first request."
McGregor dethroned Aldo from the top of the featherweight mountain by knocking him out in 13 seconds at UFC 194 a month ago in Las Vegas, Nevada (video replay here).
Despite the swift loss, Aldo wasn't afforded an instant rematch, as UFC officials awarded McGregor an instant shot to capture the lightweight title in a fight against division kingpin, Rafael dos Anjos, at UFC 197 on March 5, 2016.
Still, while that move may not sit too well with Andre -- and Frankie Edgar -- the fact that "Notorious" was allowed to hold on to the featherweight title only made it worse.
Of course, Conor has proven to be one of the promotion's biggest cash cows, which could be why they have awarded the fiery Irishman opportunities other proven champions may never get.
Fair or not.