It has been nearly three years since Conor McGregor fought in the UFC. The bombastic, charismatic Irishman took the sport to new heights and became the wealthiest, most popular star in its history off of his historically great mic skills, elite striking, and pure entertainment that he provided fans.

The UFC’s first two-division concurrent champion, however, broke his leg in his last UFC fight back in 2021 and has been out since. Last year, he was expected to fight Michael Chandler, following their stint as rival head coach on last year’s season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’. Originally slated for December ’23, their bout is in limbo at the moment, despite McGregor’s seeming eagerness to fight. Amid this uncertainty, veteran MMA journalist Ariel Helwani had McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh on his show, where they spoke about the return of the ‘Mac’.

Coach hopes Conor McGregor will be back in the gym after film release

Ariel Helwani spoke to Kavanagh and told him that the UFC was wrong to drag their feet on Conor McGregor’s comeback, and felt that this was unfair to the father of four, who had done so much for the sport and the promotion. He agreed with ‘Mac’s legendary rival Nate Diaz, who came out in support of McGregor, criticizing the UFC for dilly-dallying and asking that the UFC “Free Conor”.

Helwani asked Kavanagh if a June 29 booking, which had been floated by McGregor earlier, was still in the realm of possibility, to which the coach admitted his ignorance. Kavanagh told Helwani that he had no real inside information to share since he knew as much as the media about when McGregor would fight again.

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“I know what you’re saying, yeah, June 29th. Look I’m going to meet him either this evening or certainly tomorrow for the movie and trust me that’s why I half-jokingly say to the journalists ‘you know as much as me’. They always think go on tell me the inside scoop and I’m saying I’m seeing the same clips pop up that you guys do,” he said.

Kavanagh said that he would ask McGregor, who has been traveling, to come to the JBG gym in Dublin to train after he is done promoting his Hollywood debut film, ‘Road House’ set for release on March 21.

“Yeah, you know, Conor’s traveling so much and my head’s down so much with what’s happening day to day like I’m not really every day on Conor ‘hey I’ve seen an interview,’ just leave him be. He’ll come to me when the fight’s announced but but I will be asking him right come on up,” he added. And as the fog around when (and even if) McGregor will be back in the UFC thickens, the question on everybody’s mind is why is the UFC allegedly actively stopping its biggest star from fighting again?

UFC delaying McGregor’s comeback as a pressure tactic, claims Chael Sonnen

Conor McGregor is seemingly desperate for a fight. After his December fight with Chandler was postponed, McGregor had a mini-mental breakdown and took to Twitter where he uploaded a bunch of emotional voice notes, pleading to be allowed to fight, saying he was being kept from earning his livelihood.

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Since then, the Irishman has floated a UFC 300, 303, and 306 booking, but has been repeatedly and publicly shot down by the Dana White-led UFC. The reason behind this is speculated to be disagreements between the Irishman and the promotion over his course of action after his current contract, which has two fights left.

In a recent interview with ‘talkSPORT MMA’, McGregor said that he “didn’t know” what he would do after his current UFC contract was up and expressed frustration at being iced out by the UFC and said that it had a detrimental effect on him and that he had “lost interest, I stopped training for a while. It doesn’t usually happen to me, I always train. But I stopped full-time and went back to drinking.”

Company man and UFC veteran Chael Sonnen, meanwhile, has speculated that the UFC wanted McGregor to sign an extension, which the former champion was reluctant to do, and was delaying his fights in order to put pressure on him to re-sign. And unless either party blinks, McGregor may not get a booking at least until late this year, if that. What are your thoughts on the whole affair?

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