Retirement? Not a chance. If Conor McGregor has his way, the Irish sports star is about to get a lot more active in the cage than ever before.
Conor McGregor can’t seem to get a single fight date confirmed with the UFC these days, but he’s dreaming of a future where he’ll be more active than ever.
McGregor once fought four or even five times a year on his come up to the big leagues. When he hit the UFC, things slowed down to two or three fights a year. Then he fought Floyd Mayweather in 2017 and things slowed to a crawl. “The Notorious” has fought just four times in the past six and a half years.
You can blame a badly broken leg for two of those years. Blame the pandemic and the UFC not wanting to fight McGregor without a gate for a little before that. Maybe blame impending contract negotiations on the current delays. Whatever you blame, there’s been a whole lot of nothing happening to the point where some fans suspect Conor will never fight again.
In an interview on This Life of Mine with James Corden, Conor McGregor dismissed retirement talk.
“No. No. I’m barely touched. I’m barely touched,” McGregor said (via MMA Fighting). “I only got clicked once, and then the leg break. That’s it. I’ve put more people to sleep than anesthesia, than surgical procedure. So you know, as far as freshness, I’m as fresh as it gets in this business. There’s not been an iota of that for my family. Not yet.”
“Maybe if I can get a nice roll going, which I’m hoping for, and I get a nice four fights in a year, and then eight fights again next year, maybe then there’s more trauma, there’s more of wins and losses, or who knows? Maybe then, a conversation. But right now to this day, not an iota. My faculties are there. I’m fresh. I’m sharp. And let me get to go again.”
McGregor has been hoping to get some consistency and a ‘season’ of fighting in for years. It never seems to work out for whatever reason, but the man is clearly champing at the bit to get back into the cage. After months of frustration, he recently declared ‘all systems were go’ for his UFC return. He’s back to training in Ireland now that Road House promotional duties are done. We expect an official event announcement to be made sometime over UFC 300 weekend.
And then three more fights in 2024? Eight more in 2025? We doubt it, but appreciate the energy.