McGregor’s Comeback in Doubt

As 2024 progresses, the highly anticipated return of Conor McGregor to the UFC seems increasingly unlikely. Despite McGregor’s expressed desire to fight this year, UFC President Dana White has been clear that “The Notorious” will not be competing in 2024. This decision follows a series of setbacks, including a broken toe that led to the cancellation of McGregor’s planned bout with Michael Chandler, originally scheduled for UFC 303 in June. Though there were hopes for a December showdown, White recently confirmed that McGregor “won’t fight this year.”

Matt Brown, a recently retired UFC welterweight, has long doubted McGregor’s return to the octagon. In his view, McGregor’s time as a fighter is effectively over.

“He’s gone,” Brown stated on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “I’ve said it for a long time now. How many years have I been saying it? He’s done. I don’t discount that there’s a chance that he comes back, but the chances of him coming back are way lower than the chances of him not fighting again. He’s at, like, a 20-percent chance of coming back, I think.”

Chandler’s Long Wait

Meanwhile, Michael Chandler remains in limbo. After being selected as a coach for The Ultimate Fighter early in 2023, Chandler has been patiently awaiting his lucrative matchup with McGregor. However, McGregor’s injury, coupled with his mandatory six-month waiting period after re-entering the UFC’s anti-doping program, has left Chandler sidelined. With Chandler’s 39th birthday approaching in April 2025, the window for this fight is rapidly closing.

Brown believes that Chandler will look back on this period with regret, noting, “In my view, you only live once and this is a short window of time in your life that you get to compete at the highest level. I think he’s going to look back when he’s 50, 60 years old and be like, ‘I missed out on a couple of years there just waiting for a payday.’”

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Risks of Waiting

Chandler’s decision to wait for McGregor comes with significant risks. According to Brown, even if Chandler had fought multiple times in the past two years and suffered losses, it wouldn’t have necessarily ruled out a fight with McGregor.

“I’ve said it a million times, say he fought four times in those two years and he went 2-2 — Conor still fights him,” Brown argued.

The bigger question now is whether the potential payday is worth the time Chandler has lost. Brown suggests that Chandler’s wait is not driven by a desire to enhance his legacy but rather by the financial allure of a McGregor fight.

“It’s clear the wait is for a payday,” Brown said. “It’s not a legacy thing. It’s not for competitive nature. I think Michael Chandler’s probably going to look back on it and say, ‘I should have jumped in there.’ Maybe he won’t. I can’t read his mind, I don’t know what’s going on in his life, but I’m guessing he’s probably solid on money. It doesn’t really add up to me why you’d want to do that.”

As time runs out, Chandler faces the difficult decision of whether to continue waiting or to seek out other opportunities in the octagon, knowing that McGregor’s future remains as uncertain as ever.

Source: MMAnytt.se