Conor McGregor relinquishes UFC featherweight belt back to Jose Aldo

Two weeks after becoming the first man to simultaneously hold two UFC belts, Ireland’s Conor McGregor has vacated his featherweight title.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship announced Saturday night that McGregor (21-3), who won the featherweight title in December with a 13-second knockout of Jose Aldo, has relinquished the belt back to Aldo, who was declared the undisputed champion.

The Brazilian, who hadn’t lost in 10 years before being dropped by a McGregor punch, rebounded to defeat former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar in convincing fashion at UFC 200 in July.

The adjustments were made because of the injury to light-heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, whose withdrawal from the UFC 206 main event on Dec. 10 in Toronto forced the creation of a significant replacement bout.

So the UFC elevated the featherweight meeting between Hawaii’s Max Holloway and former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis to a five-round interim featherweight title bout.

The UFC announced the Holloway-Pettis winner “will face Aldo in 2017 for the unified belt.”

McGregor, who won the lightweight belt Nov. 12 by knocking out Philadelphia’s Eddie Alvarez in the second round at Madison Square Garden, has said he’d like to wait to fight again following his first child’s birth, which is expected in May.