Conor McGregor's fans are concerned that he will struggle to maintain his cardio within his UFC return, and will "gas out in 10 seconds".
The Irishman is coming to the end of his recovery from a broken leg suffered in his trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier in July of last year at UFC 264, and is currently shooting a film with Jake Gyllenhaal in the Dominican Republic. He has shared photos and videos flexing his muscles and showing off his considerable muscle gains, but will have to trim down for his octagon comeback.
McGregor insists that he will be returning at welterweight, as opposed to lightweight where he won the world title back in 2016 at UFC 205. But he is said to be around 190lb, which is almost a stone-and-a-half over the limit for the 170lb division, and would need to trim down his muscles in order to be able to survive a 25-minute MMA contest.
He shared a recent video in the gym where he shows off his gains while flexing aggressively, with many fans expressing their concern for the fighter. One wrote that he was set for "only 3 round fights from now on," while another joked that his new size would "just mean he'll gas out in 10 seconds instead of 20."
The Irishman has infamously had issues with his staying powers in the past, struggling to keep the pace when fights have gone past the opening rounds. He was tired out in the second round of his UFC 196 meeting with Nate Diaz in 2016, but managed to stay the course in their rematch at UFC 202 that summer.
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Then against Floyd Mayweather in their boxing match in August of 2017, McGregor got tired in the tenth round, although that was defensible given that the longest that MMA fights can go is 25 minutes and he was heading towards 30 with Mayweather. But the following year when he faced Khabib Nurmagomedov, he again tired out in the fourth round and was submitted.
"I don't lose the early rounds ever," McGregor told his website The Mac Life during the immediate aftermath of his loss to Mayweather. "There's just a moment where it's like I can't see the final line and I see a big hill and I have this little dip in energy... In the Diaz 2 fight I had that moment and I came through and recovered and then I get the second wind and I go again... In sparring I've had these middle-to-late rounds where I'm dipping and then I'd come back.
Since then, McGregor's career has been marred by injuries and issues with booking fights, and he has fought just three times; losing twice to Poirier last year after a 40-second win over Donald Cerrone in January 2020. He is expected to return in the early part of next year once he is fully cleared for competition.
