It had been just over a year since Conor McGregor had defended his lightweight championship and with the hope that McGregor would fight in late 2017, which turned into summer of 2018 and then settled on where it is now, potentially fall of 2018, the UFC was ready to move on and crown a new undisputed lightweight champion.

In order to do so, it was only natural that they scheduled interim champion Tony Ferguson as a potential suitor and the choice of his opponent was a fairly obvious one, Khabib Nurmagomedov.

The issue with this seemingly no-brainer matchup was that it had already been booked in 2015, 2016 and 2017 and each time the fight had been canceled. In 2015 it was due to a rib injury suffered by Nurmagomedov, in 2016 it was an injury to Ferguson and it was so close to happening in 2017 until Nurmagomedov suffered from a medical emergency due to complications from his weight cut. 

As the expression goes, three times is a charm - it had to be! Dana White appeared on the Toucher & Rich Show in Boston and boldly proclaimed “That fight is gonna happen. That fight will happen”. Of course, it didn’t happen and since then, White has vowed that he is “never making that fight again. Ever.”

It was April Fool’s Day, less than a week from the scheduled matchup at UFC 223, when the UFC released the news that Ferguson suffered a freak injury, news that hours later many were still convinced was a prank

The coveted matchup had fallen through once more, but the UFC’s contingency plan received wholesale praise when they announced that featherweight champion Max Holloway would step in on short notice for the injured Ferguson. The event was saved and a superfight was built with a week to promote it.

But the bad luck didn’t stop there. After Nurmagomedov confronted McGregor’s training partner Artem Lobov at the fighter hotel, McGregor flew to Brooklyn with some friends to respond and the end result was a dolly being thrown through a bus window, McGregor’s arrest and the removal of three fights from the card as a result of the horrific incident.

Spared from the incident was the main event between Holloway and Khabib, but it was not safe for long, as the New York State Athletic Commission deemed Holloway’s weight cut unhealthy the morning of the official weigh-ins and he was removed from the main event.

The UFC, desperate for an opponent, found their man in Al Iaquinta, who weighed in at 155.2 pounds and was not allowed to weigh-in again, making him ineligible to win the undisputed lightweight title.

When the dust settled, Nurmagomedov was the last man standing and the UFC fulfilled their promise of him fighting for the undisputed title, stripping both Conor McGregor and Tony Ferguson as soon as the bell rang at UFC 223’s main event between Nurmagomedov and Iaquinta.

Nurmagomedov cruised to victory and is now, by title, the undisputed lightweight champion, but the championship status seems to be more disputed than ever.

McGregor never lost the title, Ferguson never lost the interim title and Nurmagomedov hasn’t beaten anyone ranked in the division’s top-5. 

Nurmagomedov’s credentials are many as he has yet to officially lose a single round during his six-year, ten-fight tenure with the UFC, nor has he lost a fight over the duration of his mixed martial arts career. Dana White told TSN after UFC 223 that Nurmagomedov was the most dominant fighter that they have ever had in the promotion and it’s hard to argue otherwise given his resume. 

Those facts still do not offset Nurmagomedov becoming the undisputed champion of the UFC’s most stacked division by defeating the 11th ranked fighter in Iaquinta. 

With Dustin Poirier outlasting Justin Gaethje and Kevin Lee’s utter destruction of Edson Barboza, the lightweight wolves are hungry for the next title shot and with the status of McGregor completely up in the air, the clarity that was promised to this division with the crowning of a new lightweight champion has somehow resulted in even more confusion.

Third-ranked Eddie Alvarez recently appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani and said that the lightweight championship was “quite meaningless” and that suggested that optically, it looked like the UFC just wanted to put the belt on Nurmagomedov.

It is no fault of Nurmagomedov’s that he did not beat Ferguson, McGregor or Holloway, he remained a trooper throughout and accepted fights with whoever the UFC put in front of him for UFC 223, but the win over Iaquinta that earned him the championship is undoubtedly a tough pill to swallow for the rest of the division’s competitors.

Now, the lightweight division is essentially a blank canvas. None of the division’s top-15 fighters have matchups lined up and with the potential of Michael Chandler entering the UFC’s lightweight fray after his contract with Bellator expires, there are endless options for how this division goes forward.

The biggest question mark is McGregor and when he plans on returning to the Octagon. If he plans on returning this year, a fight with Nurmagomedov makes the most sense. However, there have been few indications that McGregor has plans to return any time soon and with Ferguson recovering from a serious injury, the next title shot is completely up in the air.

The other issue with the uncertainty surrounding McGregor is that three competitors all feel like they are next in line with Alvarez, Poirier and Lee all coming off of significant victories in impressive fashion and all may be hesitant to accept fights that could affect their stock until the next title fight is announced.

Then, of course, there’s another factor that cannot be overlooked and that’s the impending return of Nate Diaz, who many feel will be increasingly marketable following his back-to-back fights against McGregor, one of which he won by submission and the other, a narrow loss by majority decision. Could Diaz find himself in the title picture if that’s what it takes to get him to return?

Ultimately, putting the belt on the winner of Nurmagomedov and Ferguson with McGregor’s absence was the right move when it was established, but following Ferguson’s and subsequently, Holloway’s withdrawal, the UFC’s lightweight division may have had more clarity before the main event of UFC 223 was announced than it does now