As 2023 comes to a close, why doesn’t Conor McGregor have a fight booked?
McGregor is back in the testing pool, and United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) is gone in just a few days. McGregor’s runway to a return bout — whether it’s Michael Chandler or anybody else between Lightweight and MIddleweight — should be clear! Yet, McGregor is pissed off and at his wits end, unable to get a fight signed.
It’s a strange situation. Surely, UFC would love to have Conor McGregor high up on the UFC 300 pay-per-view (PPV) card, right? Nobody moves PPVs like the Irish talent, and UFC CEO Dana White has promised an “insane” card that’s intended to blow everyone’s minds. “The Notorious” could be a huge piece of that puzzle, yet UFC is teasing a non-McGregor super fight instead.
Bantamweight kingpin Sean O’Malley has a theory. Fresh off having his own drawing power questioned, “Suga” wonders whether McGregor has simply grown too expensive for the promotion.
“You know what’s crazy is Conor is supposedly just begging for a fight,” O’Malley said on his “TimboSugarShow” podcast (via MMAJunkie). “‘Give me a fight. Let me fight, daddy.’ Conor says his patience is wearing thin over UFC inactivity. I wonder if he’s making so much money per fight that it’s really just not that beneficial to the UFC, like they’re losing money when he fights. I wonder if his deal is structured in a way where it’s like, ‘f—k.’”
Maybe Endeavor needs to save the spare cash to buy Top Rank Boxing?
While McGregor may have earned his place as the richest and likely most expensive fighter in UFC history, he’s proven to be nothing if not a solid investment. McGregor is part of many of the best-selling PPVs in UFC history, and the promotion isn’t generous enough to give too much of that money away. Remember how McGregor fought twice in 2021? Endeavor set revenue records that year.
So, while it’s an interesting theory from “Suga,” the question still remains: why won’t UFC book its most popular fighter?