Bellator star Peter Queally insists his close friend and training partner Conor McGregor is looking "phenomenal" after packing on 40lb ahead of his UFC return.
The legendary former two-weight world champion has been training with Queally since he was a featherweight, and is now believed to tip the scales at around 195lb. And the former Bellator lightweight title contender believes McGregor will be a different animal at welterweight now, as opposed to his previous three efforts at 170lb.
McGregor fought Nate Diaz twice at welterweight in 2016, before moving down to lightweight to win his second world title, before briefly returning for a bout with Donald Cerrone in 2020 which he won in just 40 seconds. However, when he fought Diaz he was jumping up two weight classes on a few weeks' notice, and wasn't a true welterweight, as Queally says he is now.
"If I was betting I could see him fighting in the summer," Queally said of McGregor while speaking to Mirror Fighting at Bellator and FM104's Christmas Toy Drive in the pair's home gym of SBG Ireland. "Perhaps our training camps will line up and I can give him a hand as well.
"I'm always there to help Conor and I've been a part of his camps now for many, many years. I'm looking forward to seeing him get back, he looks phenomenal at the weight and as big as he looks on Instagram he looks bigger in the flesh somehow, so I'm looking forward to seeing him at welterweight with a big welterweight frame."
His fights with Diaz, including the one he lost, added to McGregor's legend as he refused to allow a two-division weight jump get in the way of his March 2016 pay-per-view headliner. The American was unable to make the lightweight limit on such short notice, but would have been able to do it for their rematch the following August.
However, McGregor insisted on keeping the conditions identical, with the only difference being an upgrade in venue to the bigger capacity T-Mobile Arena, a stone's throw from the MGM Grand where they first fought. He then went back down in weight to win the 155lb title from Eddie Alvarez, box Floyd Mayweather and eventually lose the belt to Khabib Nurmagomedov.
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He briefly returned to 170lb for his comeback fight in 2020 against Cerrone, but was always intending to get back down to lightweight for another run at gold. But now, after getting up to around 195lb during his time off, he is keen to pursue an unprecedented third world title by making himself a legitimate welterweight.
"When he fought Diaz and Cerrone he was a lightweight fighting at welterweight," Queally explained. "Diaz was a bigger guy and more like a real welterweight but him and Cerrone were basically two lightweights deciding 'let's fight at welterweight'. But now, he is a welterweight, I can confirm this.
"It's quite incredible how strong and big he is, and I'm looking forward to seeing it because over the years even when he was a featherweight and he had to make 145lb, he would hit you in sparring and it was like kissing the express train. It was just crazy. I'm not looking forward to sparring him, to be honest, with this size that he has on now."
