Before making his UFC return in July, Conor McGregor had two fights left on his contract. ‘The Notorious’ completed one of them by fighting Max Holloway at UFC 329, a bout that ended in grave disappointment after an ACL tear forced the referee to stop the fight just 69 seconds into it. His final fight under the contract is now set for next year, with McGregor disclosing that the UFC has already scheduled it for April 2027.

Roughly a year from now, the former two-division champion’s contract with the UFC will expire, making him a free agent. But McGregor has already made it clear where he wants to go next. He confirmed his plans to make his BKFC debut during an Instagram live session.

“I mean, Bareknuckle Fighting Championship is unstoppable at the moment,” McGregor said. “What a few months we have had. God bless.. God bless… True fighting. I can’t wait to do it. One more to go and then Mac Daddy is free.”

For McGregor, fighting on a BKFC card, in the promotion he co-owns, has been a long-standing ambition. Even before he purchased a stake in the company, the spectacle of fighting without gloves had intrigued the Irishman. He even had a viral face-off with Mike Perry after ‘Platinum’ defeated Luke Rockhold at BKFC 41 in 2023.

Following this encounter, McGregor made it clear that if he wasn’t contractually obligated to the UFC, he would have competed in bare-knuckle fighting. In fact, ‘The Notorious’ told Ariel Helwani in an interview that boxing and MMA can be “snoozefests,” but it’s “impossible” to have a boring fight in BKFC.

A year after McGregor got a taste of the spotlight surrounding bare-knuckle fighting, he decided to invest in the promotion in April 2024, becoming a part-owner and promoter. Even that move, however, did little to change his desire to eventually compete inside the BKFC ring.

“One of these days you’ll just hear my music go onto the stage of Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, and out I come with my fists wrapped, with no gloves and a fight out of nowhere,” McGregor told the Schmo in 2025. “No promo, no nothing, just fighting a random fight on the card, that could be what my future holds.”

For now, though, Conor McGregor is still recovering from his torn ACL and meniscus, leaving some uncertainty over what the next phase of his fighting career will look like. If he does eventually make his BKFC debut, matchups against the likes of Nate Diaz, Jeremy Stephens, or even Nate Diaz, who is also a free agent, could give the promotion another major attraction.

Meanwhile, his business partner and BKFC founder, David Feldman, has also expressed optimism that the former two-division champion could make his way into a BKFC ring once his UFC tenure comes to an end next year.

That said, with ‘The Notorious’ already envisioning his next chapter in combat sports, the bigger question may be whether his recovery allows him to compete at the level required for a bare-knuckle run in his late 30s.