After over two years of inactivity, it seems that we are finally within touching distance of a Conor McGregor comeback. The Irish fighter’s latest announcement on Instagram has put fans into a frenzy as it has essentially confirmed he will be in the Octagon within the next six months.
McGregor posted multiple pictures of his training and captioned the post, “Find my targets. Hit them. F*ck the consequences. You’re going down. This is fighting. Sparring day with slick @grozdevnikolay. Always a banger of a spar with the slick fella. Submitted my stuff to Novitzky. Ball rolling… see you soon you little light work bitch.”
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McGregor was initially slated to fight in 2023. However, he missed the deadline to join the USADA testing pool in June. According to the rules, fighters who wish to fight in the next six months have to join the USADA testing pool before the deadline. McGregor’s failure to do so meant that he would not fight in 2023 anymore.
In his Instagram caption, McGregor mentioned “Submitted my stuff to Novitzky.” Jeff Novitzky is the Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance in the UFC and McGregor has announced that he has submitted his samples for testing to him.
McGregor’s last fight was in July 2021 against Dustin Poirier. The pair had won a fight against each other and their trilogy bout went Poirier’s way. McGregor broke his foot which led to a TKO victory for Poirier and also led to his years of inactivity.
2️⃣ Years Ago Today: McGregor SNAPS his leg pic.twitter.com/q73MySuwB2
— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) July 10, 2023
With The Notorious One’s comeback now confirmed, who is he going to fight? Micahel Chandler seems to be an obvious guess, however, Tony Ferguson has also staked his claim.
Tony Ferguson and Michael Chandler are potential opponents for Conor McGregor in his comeback fight
When McGregor was slated to make a comeback in 2023, it was believed that he would face Michael Chandler. The fighters were coaches on ‘The Ultimate Fighter 31‘. Following the completion of their duties in TUF, they were expected to face each other in McGregor’s comeback fight. However, it did not materialize.
As of now, McGregor has yet to fix an opponent for his comeback fight. But, Chandler claims that the fight might take place at UFC 300 in April 2024.
Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler at UFC 300? 👀#TheMMAHour | @arielhelwani pic.twitter.com/Z4ecTW7WFD
— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) October 4, 2023
During an interview with MMA Hour, he claimed that his fight would definitely happen. He said, “The fight is still happening. The fight is not booked for a date, the fight is not booked for a venue. But the fight is booked between Chandler and Conor.”
He added the fight could take place at UFC 300, “It makes a lot of sense that there’s a very historic card coming up with the UFC. My heart of hearts says that the biggest fight we’ve seen in a very long time, the biggest card that the UFC is gonna put together since, UFC 200 or UFC 100. So, my gut says we might be waiting on till UFC 300.”
On the other hand, Ferguson, who is set to face Paddy Pimblett at UFC 296, is eyeing a McGregor fight as well. During an interview with ESPN, he claimed, “Going after Khabib for a long time and going after ‘McNuggets’ [Conor McGregor], this is about as close as it’s going to get for right now. So as soon as we get through this dude [Pimblett], we’ll go after Conor if he’ll sign on the dotted line and get through USADA.”
As McGregor’s comeback has been confirmed, we are probably just weeks away from knowing who he will face and when he will do so.
