Champ-champ
As we’ve seen in the past couple of weeks, Conor McGregor has had a lot of time to browse Twitter and send out some tweets in his retirement. Much of that Twitter use has been ill-advised at best, but he’s softened his tone in recent days.
WWE’s Becky Lynch achieved “champ-champ” status Sunday at Wrestlemania by winning both the Raw and Smackdown championships in a “winner take all” match over Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair. UFC’s first simultaneous double champion congratulated Lynch for her win with a tweet “Congrats to Irelands Becky Lynch, the WWE’s first Champ Champ. Wow!”
Congrats to Irelands Becky Lynch, the WWE’s first Champ Champ.
Wow!
What a match these ladies put on! Ronda Rousey is something special in that ring, as is Charlotte Flair of the Flair dynasty!
Stephanie McMahon you are right, I could not do what these athletes do.
Or could I…— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 8, 2019
The claim that Lynch was WWE’s first champ-champ led at least one user to correct him. Twitter user Stefan Long posted a picture of Chris Jericho with his WWE and World Heavyweight Championship belts that he won at the Vengeance 2001 pay-per-view where he famously defeated The Rock and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in the same night.
https://twitter.com/LongStefan/status/1115212104993263617
McGregor chose to engage with Long over what he feels are the official champ-champ rules that apparently apply across both MMA and professional wrestling.
“One of these is a WCW belt,” McGregor responded. Both belts must be won under the same organization and both titles must be fully unified also. Interim titles do not make the cut. The belts must also be held consecutively. This is for true ‘Champ Champ’ status. Yours sincerely, The Champ Champ™️”
One of these is a WCW belt.
Both belts must be won under the same organization and both titles must be fully unified also.
Interim titles do not make the cut.
The belts must also be held consecutively.
This is for true “Champ Champ” status.
Yours sincerely,
The Champ Champ™️ https://t.co/b7dW8T1Gty— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) April 8, 2019
So, there are a few errors in McGregor’s correction here. Jericho’s WCW championship was by then known as just the “World Heavyweight Championship” after WCW was eliminated in storyline at the previous month’s Survivor Series. So the belts were both won in the same promotion, and also on the same night. Jericho caught wind of this egregious inaccuracy and quickly put McGregor in his place.
“Thanks for the explanation of the rules Champ Champ,” Jericho tweeted. “But both belts were won under the same organization, on the same night. Now quit being a mark and move along, junior.”
Thanks for the explanation of the rules Champ Champ. But Both belts were won under the same organization, on the same night. Now quit being a mark and move along, junior. https://t.co/2HYkmdAI5i
— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) April 9, 2019
So with that all said, it would be fair to say that Jericho definitely achieved champ-champ status well before Lynch. But that doesn’t even matter because we all know who WWE’s true OG champ-champ is.
Wednesday Notebook
-Cody Garbrandt feels vindicated now that TJ Dillashaw, who has knocked him out twice, has been suspended for two-years for a USADA violation. “All of my losses are from Fighters that have popped for PEDs @ufc @usantidoping,” Garbrandt tweeted. “I can stand behind this when I say I’ll always be a drug free athlete.” Garbrandt’s only losses are the two to Dillashaw and to Pedro Munhoz last month. Munhoz has not been flagged for any USADA violation. When challenged on this, Garbrandt clarified, “Let’s make this clear I’m not saying my losses are a direct result of PED convicted fighters. I also fought like a dumb ass.”
-Paulo Costa explained to Combate.com why he pulled out of his fight with Yoel Romero that was originally scheduled for later this month. “I was called to fight Romero. I signed the contract; he hadn’t signed it,” he said (transcribed and translated by MMAJunkie). “He’d gone to a reality show, and we were in this indecision of whether he’d be able to fight or not. When he came back from the reality show and was able to sign the contract at last – in the same week he was back, the New York Athletic State Commission asked me to make a statement about a medication I’d taken for my stomach. And then they said, ‘In order for you to answer this, you won’t be able to fight, unfortunately. You’re unfortunately going to be ineligible for this fight because you need to notify to us what it is that you took for your stomach.’
“It was a simple medicine, ‘Plasil’ (used commonly in Brazil for nausea). It’s not doping. It has nothing to do with doping. You take it when you feel some type of stomach discomfort. So because of that – I didn’t understand it, either – they said that I couldn’t fight him, because I had to figure this out first.”
-TJ Dillashaw’s coach Duane Ludwig called Dillashaw’s drug test failure “inexcusable” in an Instagram post.
-Davi Ramos will fight Austin Hubbard at UFC Rochester on May 18.
In case you missed it
–MCGRATH: You can’t spell ‘dope’ without EPO
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