Will Conor McGregor Fight Again?
A name that rings a bell across anybody's mind is “The notorious” Conor McGregor, when McGregor fights even the most casual MMA fan to someone who doesn’t watch MMA often is glued to their TVs. McGregor is kind of a jack of all trades not only does McGregor fight, but he also has his own whiskey and beer and has recently acted in the remake of Road House. The issue with McGregor is we haven’t seen him fight since July of 2021, Conor had a gnarly injury when he broke his lower fibula and tibia during his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier. With an injury that bad usually meaning the decline of an athlete's career, McGregor is going to have to answer a lot of questions; although I think the biggest question on most MMA fans' minds is, will Conor McGregor fight again?
Conor McGregor rose to fame quickly when he joined the UFC in 2013, what made McGregor so great was his ability to get in his opponent’s head. McGregor’s mental warfare was something his opponents couldn’t handle; he would say how he would knock out his opponents and what round he would finish the fight, and he predicted his wins correctly. After only five fights in the UFC, Conor was granted a shot at interim Featherweight gold against Chad Mendes, after defeating Mendes and winning the interim Featherweight Championship, Conor fought the Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo and Knocked Aldo out in thirteen seconds. Not only did McGregor win the Featherweight Championship, but he also made history with the fastest title fight in UFC history, that record still has not yet been broken. With only two years fighting for the promotion “The Notorious,” Conor McGregor was possibly the biggest name in MMA, and in 2016, McGregor brought his career to new heights when he defeated Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez, becoming the first active two-division champion in the UFC.
Unfortunately for McGregor, 2016 was the last time he peaked in his career. After defeating Alvarez in 2016, McGregor took a year off of MMA to train for his boxing match with Floyd Mayweather. Conor was stripped of his Lightweight title for inactivity in April 2018. In October 2018, McGregor went on to battle Khabib Nurmagomedov in effort to get his Lightweight title back; however, McGregor lost by fourth-round submission. We would not see Conor again until January 2020, when he fought against an out-of-prime. Conor TKO’ed Cerrone in 40 seconds. That was McGregor’s last victory. McGregor would go on to fight Dustin Poirier two times in 2021, in January 2021, McGregor got Knocked out for the first time in his career. After his loss to Poirier, the two would rematch, and in that rematch, Conor broke his leg.
The injury was a huge setback for McGregor, taking him out of competition for at least two years, however, in the Summer of 2023, Conor agreed to do a season of The Ultimate Fighter to set a fight with “Iron” Micheal Chandler. UFC originally wanted to schedule the men to fight in the fall of 2023, yet the recording of the Road House movie got in the way of that. Obligations for the movie pushed the fight back until June 2024 at; however, Conor McGregor broke his toe during his training for the fight. Yet another setback for Conor: where does that leave us now? McGregor is set to return to MMA in early 2025, although he no longer has an opponent. Chandler just accepted a rematch against Charles Olivera in November. Now McGregor can fight anyone; his fights will sell anyway. The issue is that by the time Conor decides to compete again, he would be without a win in five years, and the lightweight division has changed dramatically in those five years. So that leaves McGregor with two options for a fight: either Dustin Poirier or Micheal Chandler.
At this point, it seems like stars would have to align to see McGregor make his return to the octagon. Conor is 36 years old, and the chances of him reliving his prime in 2016 are highly unlikely. I would like to see if Conor can get another win, yet both of his potential opponents are likely to win. So, I think the best decision for McGregor at this point is to retire, he has done enough for the sport. Yet I would not complain if the UFC would be able to get one last fight out of the Irishman.
