Recently, Dana White claimed that Conor McGregor was going to take 10 months off from fighting while he awaits the birth of his first child, but in a new interview the Irish superstar suggested he could return sooner than that.
“As far as I break, I don’t know,” McGregor told RTE in his native Ireland. “I know Dana [White] has been on record, he’s saying ‘10 months, he’s taking 10 months’, I don’t know.
“Originally I thought the baby was being born in March and then it was May so maybe I could get in another [fight] in. I just don’t know. I’m weighing up my options.”
So, it sounds suspiciously like McGregor is already getting the itch to return to the Octagon after winning the lightweight title from Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in November.
“I did say I was going to take a break but a Christmas break! It’s the holidays, at least give me them off! We’ll see what happens in the future.”
At the same time, it also appears as if ‘The Notorious’ is also becoming more and more interested in the prospect of attempting to recreate his hugely successful MMA career in the boxing ring.
“I can go and conquer the boxing scene as well, that’s a very serious thought, a very serious conversation that is happening so we’ll see.”
If he did, that would almost certainly mean a mega-fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr, but McGregor isn’t getting overly excited by the prospect at this stage.
“I mean we’ll see what happens. Of course, I’ve got the boxing licence, his last pay-per-view was 350,000 buys and it was a flop, the fight was a dud.
“I certainly don’t need him. I could pick some local schmuck and do big numbers; of course that’s the fight everyone wants to see, but these things take time.”
Also indicating that he’s had interest from both Hollywood and WWE, it’s clear that McGregor is not short of options, though standing in the way of any of these opportunities is the fact that he’s still signed to the UFC.
No doubt the UFC’s new owners WME-IMG will be keen to ensure that their biggest star remains firmly focused on his MMA career, so it’ll be interesting to see whether they take him up on his offer to visit him in Ireland to talk business in the near future.
“I expect them to fly that jet to me. Ari, Patrick, the new owners from WME-IMG, the guys that bought the UFC for $4 billion, I want to speak to them. I want to see what their plan is. Because right now I don’t know what nobody’s plan is.”
