Conor McGregor’s long awaited comeback appears to have been pushed back even further, with UFC CEO Dana White now suggesting he won’t be seen in the Octagon until the fall season at the earliest.
“Conor will fight this year,” White stated on The Jim Rome Show. “I’m thinking the fall, sometime in the fall.
“He won’t be on (UFC) 300.”
That appears to shut down McGregor’s claim on New Years Eve that he would be returning to fight Michael Chandler in June during the UFC’s annual International Fight Week in Las Vegas.
His announcement had always been treated with scepticism though and had been shrugged off by White himself. Since then McGregor has continued to campaign for a fight in the first half of the year though, including a couple of weeks ago when he declared that, “McGregor on [UFC] 300 seals the deal.”
As recently as two days ago he appeared to be losing patience with the UFC, venting his frustration on Instagram Stories by stating, “Get this f***ing date set,” alongside video footage of him and Chandler.
There’s clearly more to this story than meets the eye though as it’s in the UFC’s best interests to have McGregor back fighting again since he remains their biggest draw, and he would have been the answer to their problems regarding turning UFC 300 into the ‘crazy’ spectacle that White has been promising.
In fact, on a recent edition of his wildly popular podcast, the UFC’s long-time color commentator Joe Rogan claimed that the UFC had indeed been trying to get McGregor on that card, and appeared to suggest that it wasn’t the promotion who got in the way of it happening.
“The big one – they were trying to get Conor,” Rogan said of the UFC’s plans for their 300th PPV show.
“But he’s not going to be ready then.”
And so for reasons that remain unclear the UFC have not only abandoned plans to get McGregor on UFC 300, but also appear to now be ruling out a summer return too.
