After being out of action for a considerable amount of time, Conor McGregor recently announced his return to MMA will take place this summer when he’ll finally fight Michael Chandler.
With Conor McGregor having not fought for three years, MMA fans have questioned if the former two-weight world champion would ever return.
The last time the 35-year-old fought, he broke his leg in his trilogy fight with lightweight rival, Dustin Poirier.
Conor McGregor responds to retirement questions
With his comeback seeming imminent, ‘The Notorious’ told TNT Sports that he won’t ever retire, and he’ll take fighting ‘to the grave’.
It seemed as though McGregor’s comeback to MMA may not happen, as tensions increased between himself and the UFC with him looking to return sooner rather than later.
Despite that, he announced recently that he has been given the go-ahead for his comeback fight against Michael Chandler to take place this Summer after the two faced off on the last season of The Ultimate Fighter.
“I don’t think I could ever feel like calling it a day till I’m laid out flat and that’s it, in a box and going down to the ground, that’s when I’ll call it a day.
“It’s almost like (fighters) get weighted down with the pressure of life, uncertainty, you see a lot of fighters in their post-fight, even most recent with Dustin (Poirier) and (Alexander) Volkanovski, it’s like the weight of something atop them and they allow it then to just take them out of the game.” McGregor said.
Although the 35-year-old revealed his comeback, it is yet to be confirmed by the UFC.
Words of Mike Tyson that ‘stuck’ with Conor McGregor
The Irishman referred to former heavyweight boxing world champion, Mike Tyson, coming back to boxing to fight Jake Paul this year at 57 years old, admitting that something Tyson said before his fight with Roy Jones Jr back in 2020 ‘stuck’ with him.
“Look at Mike Tyson now, fighting Jake Paul, that’s an older guy. What Tyson said that really stuck with me, Mike was asked in an interview before the Roy Jones Jr fight, ‘What do you think Cus D’Amato (coach) would say to you coming back after all these years?’, and what Tyson said really stuck with me, he said ‘Cus would say to me what took you so long?’ and that really hit me.” McGregor admitted.
Although McGregor said he won’t ‘ever’ retire he did say that he will only be fighting other fighters in a similar position to him.
McGregor finished by saying: “I’m not going to be 40 odd and looking at the next 19-year-old wonderkid from wherever he’s from. Look at all of my potential opponents, I have gangs of opponents that I have a history with, trilogies, second fights, these are all a similar age to me so if they’re of similar age to me and I have an audience interest which I do, who’s to say these fights won’t take place whenever they do?”