Conor McGregor is finally returning after a five-year absence to fight Max Holloway at UFC 329 on July 11th, but ‘The Notorious’ has now revealed that he already knows when his next fight will be after that.
During a whirlwind media tour, McGregor noted that after his rematch with Holloway he’ll only have one fight left on his current UFC contract, and it’ll take place next year.
“Right now, I am contracted, and I have both dates,” McGregor said on The Ariel Helwani Show. “I have both dates for my fight. I have July 11 — when would you think they would put me back in? April, 2027! It’s almost a year later! That’s ridiculous to me!”
McGregor went on to complain that he’d have preferred to have both fights by the end of the year, but explained that the way the dates have fallen is “the way the contract was done.”
“I don’t care who the opponent is. Give it to me at the end of the year,” McGregor said. “July, end of year. Boom. Let’s go to a new deal.
“And then f*cking April. How many weeks in a year? 50-f*cking-2. So 52 fights, a fight a week. I want to get going here, and I hope to get going. Please, God, I fancy it. I fancy my ability to do it.”
McGregor’s eagerness to get these fights done suggests that he may be excited by the idea of becoming a free agent and exploring other potential lucrative opportunities outside of the UFC’s Octagon, but he’s not ruling out the possibility that he could stay with the promotion that made him a superstar.
“I’m happy, to an extent,” McGregor said of the current state of play. “There’s a lot more there. I hope it’s with the UFC. I hope we come to something. I hope I get honored even more. I’m going to prove even more so what I’m about.
“It wasn’t that difficult [to come to these terms],” McGregor went on to say of the financial aspect of his comeback fight. “We met in the middle. Was it what my worth is? Probably not. Was it what they wanted to offer, or what they offered? Definitely not. We met in the middle. I’m a fair operator. So that’s how I operate.
“I love the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and I’d love to continue. Let’s see how it goes.”
However, while McGregor clearly has big plans for the future, he’s also mindful that he first has to get back into the Octagon next month and prove that he’s still got what it takes.
“I have July 11,” McGregor said. “It’s only around the corner. That’s positivity, happiness. I don’t want to go too much into all of that. I’ve got the fight, I’ve got the date, I feel great. Bring it on, baby. ‘The Mac’ is back! And I’m going to put on a show in this fight! This is a martial arts delight, this bout. This is a fan-favorite, iconic bout.”
Watch McGregor’s full in-depth interview with Ariel Helwani below.
