Conor McGregor doesn’t allow anybody to forget about his existence. As it became customary for “The Notorious”, the Irish superstar posted more photos of himself on Instagram. This time, however, one of the pictures shows him holding the UFC championship title. And it’s not the first occurrence when he hinted title fight comeback.
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McGregor’s last fight took place at UFC 264, back in 2021, where he suffered not only a loss to Dustin Poirier but also a broken ankle. Since then the former two-division champion has spent his time on a variety of activities – including his rehabilitation, getting back to shape, being a father and husband, parting, and teasing his return. The latter sometimes included putting him in a title fight right out of the gate.
Conor McGregor’s campaign for a welterweight title fight
Back in March 2022 “The Notorious” was aiming to all new highs by targeting the third championship belt. To do so he picked Kamaru Usman.
During his interview with The Mac Life, Conor McGregor said that he could easily win a welterweight title fight against then-champion Kamaru Usman:
“I believe that’s the fight to make. I believe myself and Usman for the 170-pound title for my comeback fight is the one I’m eyeballing at the minute… I’ve already won the 155-pound title. I got myself down to a lightweight frame but I’m big now, I feel big, I feel strong, I feel healthy… and I feel confident about Usman, [who’s] a jab, hoppy, sloppy orthodox wrestler with no submissions whatsoever. What’s he gonna do? Where’s the danger here? I don’t see a danger with him. He’s ground and pound isn’t strong.”
Interestingly enough, even Dana White responded to all the talk but stated that the Irishman would not get the intermittent welterweight title shot upon his return. On the other hand, he doesn’t disclude a lightweight title scrap between McGregor and the potential winner of the UFC 274 main event fight between Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje.
Here comes the new challenger!
Due to missing the weight limit, Oliveira was stripped of the belt just before the opening bell. This didn’t stop him from defeating Gaethje, resulting in the title being vacated. However, that didn’t mean, that “The Notorious” would just waltz in in the title picture. On the contrary, he was called out by someone else.
Earlier this evening “Iron” Mike Chandler disposed of Tony Ferguson with a brutal frontkick to the face. During his post-fight interview gave a fired-up promo and called out McGregor:
UFC was more than willing to put these two together, but Conor McGregor still needed time to work on his shape and get through anti-doping tests. So just to kill some time and work out the details they’ve announced the 31st season of The Ultimate Fighter: Team McGregor vs. Team Chandler.
The two coaches exchanged some words and shoves and everything was pointing that the fans would finally see the Irishman back in the octagon, preferably at the upcoming UFC 300.
However, on New Year’s Eve McGregor posted a video, where he said that he would indeed fight Michael Chandler during the summer. Only time will tell if that announcement becomes reality and if we will see “The Notorious” fulfilling his ambition of becoming the UFC champion once more.
