Why did Sanikidze release the title? I don’t want to unnecessarily hinder the careers of other fighters now. As fighters we don’t have that much time again, he said

Maté Sanikidze defended his featherweight championship belt at Štvanice when his opponent Losene Keita was injured. Now he is no longer the champion, he gave up the belt. How did he come to this decision and what does it mean?

The Oktagon is looking for a new featherweight champion. The current champion Mate Sanikidze has decided to vacate the title. The twenty-four year old wrestler from Georgia regained the belt after defeating Losene Keita at Stvanica.

The Belgian fighter got hurt after one minute and Sanikidze was visibly cranky. He wanted to win in a different way. But why did he give up his belt now?

The reason is simple, Sanikidze has decided to quit the featherweight division and instead move to bantamweight, where Felipe Lima currently holds the belt. But we can also find fighters like Jonas Magard, Antun Racic and Gustavo Lopez.

“It was a decision made by me and my team. Because I don’t want to hold up the division unnecessarily if I don’t fight at 66 kg. My last fights have always been around 67-68 kg, so I basically didn’t throw anything.

I have respect for the other fighters in the division and I don’t want a repeat of the same scenario with Keita, who has been defenseless for over a year. I knew before the Keita fight that it was my last fight at featherweight. Win or lose, it doesn’t matter, I would have walked away anyway.

I’ve fought in three different weight classes and I think bantamweight will be perfect for me. So why should I keep my featherweight belt if I don’t plan to fight at featherweight anymore?” he told MMA Shorties.

Fans couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t rather keep the belt and try to be a double champion. However, the young Georgian explained that he didn’t want to stand in the way of other fighters’ fortunes.

“Of course it would have been better for marketing if I had kept the title and tried to become a double champion. However, I already know how it feels when you win the title and I don’t want to unnecessarily hinder the careers of other fighters now. Again, as fighters we don’t have that much time, so even a year is a long time,” he added.

Source: MMA Shorties