Conor McGregor remains one of the biggest names in combat sports, with ties to both UFC and BKFC. But will he ever fight again?
Chael Sonnen isn’t so sure.
The veteran MMA analyst pondered McGregor’s prospects in a recent YouTube clip, questioning whether fans will ever see the former two-division UFC champion return to action, whether it’s in the octagon, in the ring, or elsewhere. McGregor has not competed since breaking his leg in a loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021, and considering he turns 38 this year, has already had one of the most successful careers in combat sports history, and is currently dealing with yet another round of sexual assault allegations, it’s unclear if his fighting days are finished.
A return to MMA doesn’t make sense as far as Sonnen is concerned.
“What do you want to see Conor do?” Sonnen asked. “Because he’s under contract with the UFC, who has no interest in letting him go, and [BKFC President] Dave Feldman came out and spoke about this and Dave Feldman’s got a marketing—he’s got this great relationship with Conor. Conor has brought a lot to those events. Showing up, jumping in the ring, whatever it might be, but he has for sure brought something to those events, and Dave Feldman was speaking about it and he was super candid about it, maybe the most honest any promoter has ever been on the subject an he said, ‘[UFC has] him. They would have to help us. They would have to be doing us a favor to release Conor to us. I don’t think they want to do us a favor and it would help us. But we’ve got a great relationship and we’ll see what happens.’ It was the most honest answer you could ever get. Dave Feldman’s great.
“But it does make you think because I’ve never been open to that idea. I’ve never been open to it because I understand some of the inner workings of what Conor’s going through. Just in the testing pool, for example. And this has already been tested once and we had to wait 180 days to get him back—I don’t believe that’s the actual rule, it didn’t get tested—but we had to wait 180 days to get him back, which we thought was going to clear him for UFC 300. Not only did we not see him at 300, we’re not going to see him by 400. He simply is not going to do MMA. Nor should he.”
Sonnen doesn’t just think McGregor’s MMA days are numbered. He also wondered whether McGregor should avoid martial arts competition altogether, given that he has opportunities in the entertainment world outside of fighting and maybe should consider self-preservation above all else at this point.
“He also shouldn’t do any form of combat,” Sonnen said. “It would not be safe for him to go into UFC Fight Pass Invitational. It would not be safe for Conor to go into a grappling match. It would not be safe for him to go into an MMA match if the No. 1 and golden rule is to protect yourself at all times, there is nobody under contract—not a top-10 guy—there is nobody under contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship that Conor could protect himself against at all times.
“There is nobody under contract at [BKFC] where Conor can protect himself at all times. Now, I’m not being rude when I talk about this with Conor. These aren’t opinions. This wouldn’t be some new opinion. This is five years of evidence across two different sports. He for sure cannot protect himself.”
McGregor was set to return at UFC 303 this past June for a grudge match with Michael Chandler, but withdrew due to a broken toe. It was a rare pull-out for McGregor, who has prided himself on showing up for fights regardless of the circumstances. That decision has Sonnen further doubting McGregor’s willingness to step back into the octagon.
Should McGregor actually retire from fighting, Sonnen believes he still has plenty of options, but he’s curious as to how fans will receive McGregor going forward.
“I think that Conor could rebuild,” Sonnen said. “I think that he definitely could go and get a new identity. I don’t think that you the audience look at Conor as the UFC fighter remotely close to as much as Conor thinks you see him as the UFC fighter. I don’t think you the audience think of Conor as the boxer as much as Conor believes that you see him as a boxer. I think most of you see him as a drunk. I think you’d associate him with Proper 12 before anything else, I think.
“I also think you see him as an entertainer and there’s a lot of ways to entertain. So I like Dave Feldman’s point. It would take some favors, it would take somebody trying to help, people would come, and [Jeremy] Stephens vs. Conor we can make some really great matches there. We can re-do Eddie [Alvarez] and Conor. There’s no way to go wrong with Conor. So if you were to have a party and have the people over and you get to control what the form of entertainment is, would you rather see him in a movie and just see him out? He’s out, he’s out of the fight game. Would you rather see him as a promoter at an event, which does bring pretty good attention. Or would you rather see him in the UFC or would you rather see him in bare-knuckle boxing? Not what do you think he’s going to do, where would you most like to see Conor next?”
