Putting Conor McGregor Ahead of Valentina Shevchenko or Justin Gaethje in UFC Rankings is Premature

It is completely understandable to be excited by the prospect of Conor McGregor going wild in the UFC's welterweight division. You can also acknowledge that he's an excellent fighter with a skillset not often seen in MMA.

What is hard to understand, however -- and what frustrates fans to no end -- is the obsession UFC is exhibiting in hyping up McGregor after one win while disrespecting the achievements of other fighters in the organization.

Come on, guys.

UFC's latest update to their official in-house rankings places Conor at No. 11 on the overall pound-for-pound list. That puts him above the emphatic champion of the women's flyweight division, Valentina Shevchenko, as well as over Justin Gaethje, who somehow went down in rankings in the lightweight division to, you guessed it, Conor McGregor, a man who has fought exactly one lightweight bout in three years. And he lost.

How do you jump a legit contender in the lightweight rankings by fighting at welterweight, a full 15 pounds above its threshold? It's extremely disrespectful to not just Gaethje, but the rest of the UFC. And quite frankly, it's a lazy move from the voting panelists who are presented as experts in the sport.

Let's look at this from a fighting standpoint and one that sets aside personalities and marketing: Conor has fought three times since November 2016. End of discussion! If seeing him beat Donald Cerrone is actually that significant, where was the same hype when Gaethje, a guy who has constantly fought in the UFC through McGregor's absences, also beat Cerrone by knockout in the first round earlier in 2019?

I get it, folks. Conor is a folk hero who took the UFC by storm once again after an extended absence, and he deserves some acknowledgment from peers and journalists alike. But there are other fighters in this sport, believe it or not, who have done nothing to deserve to be overshadowed by him -- not yet, anyway. Disregarding their accomplishments to push someone who, simply put, has not been interested in consistently fighting the last few years is careless and premature.