Several weeks removed from what should have been Conor McGregor’s return fight at UFC 303, speculation continues on what’s next for ‘Notorious’.
If the promotional material and hype from Dana White are to be believed, UFC 306 at The Sphere in Las Vegas will be one of the most spectacular live sporting events in history – but are rumors around a potential ‘Notorious’ main event being blown out of proportion?
Conor McGregor back in training ahead of UFC return
Following his withdrawal from UFC 303 with a broken toe, Conor McGregor has returned to training; posting a short video to Instagram over the weekend showing him working out in the dead of night as a festival was being held in the grounds of his Swiss hotel.
“What they don’t see. They party, I pull power… Millions today alone, parties out my back garden and where am I? Still here, after hours. Second session of the day, Sunday night… The workout is not going to get done by itself. Happy Sunday.”
Ironically, it was a very happy Sunday indeed as the video was posted just a few hours after McGregor also won big on the Nate Diaz vs Jorge Masvidal boxing event, in which ‘Notorious’ earned a whopping $1.6 million by backing his former rival.
Yet that figure pales in comparison to the $16 million that the UFC has reportedly invested in their upcoming PPV bonanza at The Sphere in Las Vegas, which is scheduled for September in celebration of Mexican Independence Day.
Ariel Helwani offers update on McGregor vs Chandler at The Sphere
Over the past two weeks, there has been speculation that Conor McGregor could recover from the injury in time to headline UFC 306 at The Sphere in September.
The main source of the rumor was Michael Chandler himself, who posted to X (Twitter): “If [Conor McGregor’s] little pinky toe is ready by Sept, let’s do sphere. Biggest sporting event in history of sports!!!”
A few days later, Chandler followed up by replying to a fan post asking for the pair of lightweight superstars to clash in the Las Vegas megastructure with one simple word: “Loading…”
Unfortunately, it appears that such a blockbuster event is sadly going to go down without McGregor as the headlining attraction, as veteran MMA journalist Ariel Helwani explained on The MMA Hour.
“No, it’s not Conor vs Chandler – at this point, if I had to put money on Conor versus Chandler… The way that the wind is blowing at this juncture, seems to be December.
“I feel like that’s the way that the cookie will crumble but there’s no chance Conor-Chandler will be at The Sphere… It’s too expensive, the event is too expensive and Conor commands too much money.”
That December UFC PPV event has not yet been officially announced by the promotion – interestingly, the last time that McGregor fought in December, it was the iconic 13-second knockout of Jose Aldo.
Helwani also noted that “I don’t think that they’d create a date,” specifically to have a McGregor comeback headlining its own PPV outside of the current schedule – so who could headline The Sphere at UFC 306 if not ‘Notorious’?
Well, the consensus opinion is that the mega-event will be headlined by either a bantamweight title fight between Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili, or a featherweight title fight between Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway.
Sadly, fans shouldn’t expect to get both of those title fights at The Sphere, with the fan-favorite reporter explaining how the UFC will instead likely split them up between UFC 306 in Las Vegas and UFC 307 in Utah.
“And then O’Malley versus Merab and Ilia vs Max, it’s either one is The Sphere, [and] one is Utah. If I had to guess, O’Malley has already said that he wants The Sphere and I think it makes a little bit more sense with Merab ready to fight on that date.”
UFC 306 goes down live from The Sphere on September 14, followed by UFC 307 from Utah on October 5, and then by UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi on October 26 – we are still awaiting the November and December PPVs being announced.