Conor McGregor tries to give UFC champion Charles Oliveira some advice.
Conor McGregor attended Bellator this weekend, and it’s where he gave an update on his recovery from injury. According to the former two-division champion, he’s going to be allowed to do some boxing sparring again in April, and expects to return a few months after that with a “different style.”
“Very good. It’s getting there, day by day,” McGregor told SevereMMA (transcribed by MMA Fighting. “Day by day, I feel better. They’re telling me to just take it easy, but I feel I can go, so I just need to kind of pull the reins back on my own self, so that’s kind of what I’m doing.”
“April, they said I can spar again and I can box again basically,” McGregor said. “So I’m just going to take it day by day. Hopefully, now, once I get back sparring, I’ll know weight, I’ll know feel, I’ll know my own style. You know what I mean? I’m going to develop a different style, I’d imagine, so I’ve been shadowboxing a bit lately and I feel like I’m just getting the bearing of myself. But I feel good. I’m grounded on my feet, I can stop and start and take off. It’s just the little twists or a torque, I’ve just got to be careful on.
“But this will be a here today, gone tomorrow type of thing in my own head. The bone will recover, it’ll connect back to itself and it’ll be like it never happened.”
Justin Gaethje is expected to face UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira next, with Islam Makhachev also being in the mix if he wins this weekend. McGregor wants to jump the line in his return though, implying that it’d be the smart move for Oliveira, since he’d make more money fighting him.
“If your man’s wise, he might give it another month or two,” McGregor said. “July seems OK for me. I can’t say too early, but July, if I’m sparring in April, May, June, July — I could slap the head off of most of these guys at the end of April.”
McGregor and his team have been pushing the idea of returning with an immediate title shot as of late, simply because he’s a huge draw.
The former champion has lost three of his last four bouts by stoppage. His last win at lightweight dates back almost six years ago.