Conor McGregor's coach is certain the UFC star will return to action this year.
Former two-weight champion McGregor, 34, hasn't fought since breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier in their trilogy fight, which took place over 18 months ago. The UFC has continued to move on without McGregor despite him being the promotion's star attraction, with the Irishman losing his spot in the rankings last month.
'Notorious' hasn't won a fight in over three years as he suffered two defeats to Poirier in 2021, but his coach John Kavanagh has now revealed talks are underway for him to make his return. McGregor's manager Audie Attar was recently in Dublin to discuss McGregor's fighting return as Kavanagh said he is "very confident" that McGregor will fight this year.
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“I’d be willing to bet my house on it,” Kavanagh said of McGregor's return on The MMA Hour. “I was actually just chatting with him yesterday or the day before and then his manager Audie was in town. “Yeah, I think there’s some interesting negotiations going along now. I absolutely can’t say anything beyond that, but I’m very, very confident that we’ll see Conor back in the octagon this year.”
McGregor is expected to make his return at welterweight having packed on a lot of muscle whilst being limited to upper body training during his recovery from injury. Several big names have already called out McGregor for his comeback fight, such as Jorge Masvidal and Michael Chandler. Kavanagh listed three opponents that he thinks would each present different problems to McGregor in his return.
"Justin Gaethje would be a very interesting matchup, somebody he hasn’t fought before. The Poirier fight, we’ve done that so many times at this stage and it’s just a weird one. Michael Chandler, a great fighter, a great athlete. They’re all brilliant. They’re all going to bring something different to the contest," Kavanagh added.
"What I would be looking for would be the one name that gets Conor moving. Gets him off his stool, gets him moving around and gets him excited. Some of the names I’ve heard him mention it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I’d fight him,’ but if I see that level of lack of interest, I’d be nervous that won’t get him through twelve weeks of being in a very tough environment where if it’s a name that is exciting then training is fun and training is easy.”
