Conor McGregor has displayed his transformation to 'super-heavyweight' ahead of his UFC return against Michael Chandler.
McGregor has been out of action for almost two years since breaking his leg in a loss to Dustin Poirier, but announced that he will make his UFC comeback against Michael Chandler this year. The contest has yet to have a confirmed date after the conclusion of filming for The Ultimate Fighter, and the Irishman is yet to enter a full training camp after facing a potential six-month wait.
Despite being yet to grace the octagon again, McGregor has shown off a huge new physique which has seen it announced that he will now return at 170lb. He has joked throughout the recovery from his injury that he could weigh in at heavyweight and regularly flexed his new frame on social media.
And in a fresh comparison to his early days in the UFC, the former featherweight champion has shown off a remarkable 10-year weight transformation, with the caption: "Featherweight to super-heavyweight." McGregor elected to pile on the pounds during his recovery, which could see him look to overturn his bad run of form in a new weight class.
It was back-to-back losses for McGregor at 155lb with his only win in his last four outings coming at 170lb when he made a return from a previous hiatus by beating Donald Cerrone in 2020. And this has seen him since show off a ripped physique with fans seeing regular updates of his progress on social media.
It has been a long road to recovery for the 34-year-old who has already faced off with upcoming opponent Chandler during their coaching stint for The Ultimate Fighter in Las Vegas. McGregor showed off his frightening shape during his time on set, which could provide a stern warning to Chandler who was willing to move up in weight to secure the fight.
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In an explanation for McGregor's new build, his coach John Kavanagh explained it helped his broken leg bone to heal by piling on weight. “You know, Conor is a very hard trainer and he’s not going to go to the gym and mess around,” Kavanagh told Fox Sports. “The only thing he could go is lift weights. So guess what? He lifted all the weights.
“What he is going to come back I believe is much stronger. Any strength and conditioning coach will tell you, it’s not massively difficult to get somebody cardio fit, but it is hard to get them strong. So he’s focusing on what he can do now, which is get strong, strong, strong.
“The bone is well healed. As he likes to say now, he has a titanium shin for kicking people in the head. When we start the fitness training, the excess fat and the excess weight will burn off just from the amount of calories you burn doing this sport.”
