John Kavanagh says he would be willing to bet his house on Conor McGregor returning to the octagon this year.
The Notorious has not fought since the summer of 2021 when he suffered a broken leg in his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264.
McGregor had been expected to return to action last year before he suffered a setback in his recovery, but his long-time coach is "very, very confident" that the former two-weight champion will fight in 2023.
“I’d be willing to bet my house on it,” Kavanagh told The MMA Hour. “I was actually just chatting with him yesterday or the day before and then [his manager] Audie [Attar] 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.”
Those negotiations are almost certain to involve a conversation around McGregor returning to the USADA testing pool.
McGregor left the testing pool when injured and USADA have stated that he would need to return to it for six months before he would be allowed to fight, but the Dubliner believes he is entitled to an exception.
He stated in November: “I am clear for testing in February. I will complete my two tests per USADA and we are booking a fight.”
On who McGregor fights, Kavanagh claims he's not that fussed as long as it's someone who gets his fighter excited.
The SBG boss said: "I’m asked this so often and I have to be honest when I say I really don’t mind. What matters to me is that, let’s say I’m seeing Conor this week and we’re chatting and he says a few names and I see a name particularly gets the eyes open, particularly gets his pacing up and down the living room and showing me what he’s going to do and what he’s not going to do. That would be absolutely the most important thing for me, is that it’s a name that’s going to excite him.
"Because for Conor, for training for this next fight, he’s definitely got to find something that’s massively motivating to him to get him out of the silk pants and into the sweaty gym.
"What’s it going to be? A couple million more? Is that really going to motivate him? I don’t think so. He has a couple championship belts. Is that it? I don’t think so. So I think it’s more going to be a particular opponent, a particular skill set and how it matches up against him."
Kavanagh added: “You’ve got the great Nate Diaz is obviously in there. Justin Gaethje would be a very interesting matchup, somebody he hasn’t fought before. The [Dustin] 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."
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