UFC President Dana White confirmed in the post-fight press conference of Season 8, Episode 1 of “Dana White’s Contender Series” that McGregor, who has been scheduled to fight “Iron” Michael Chandler, will now not be fighting in 2024.

Ladies and gentlemen, MMA’s worst-kept secret has been confirmed – Conor McGregor will go another year without appearing inside a UFC octagon.

McGregor has not appeared in a UFC octagon since his trilogy matchup with Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier at UFC 264 in 2021, suffering an utterly horrific leg break in the process. “The Notorious” has also been involved in a long-running feud with fellow UFC lightweight “Iron” Michael Chandler, ever since the two were rival coaches on The Ultimate Fighter Season 31.  As is TUF tradition, the two coaches usually face each other in the octagon. The fight has been rumoured since the third quarter of 2023, and was finally (and officially) confirmed to be taking place at UFC 303 on June 29th, 2024. However, this also ended up not happening due to McGregor sustaining a broken pinky toe during sparring.

Then, the fight was rumoured to happen when the UFC takes over the Las Vegas Sphere in September, during the Mexican Independence weekend card. Now, it’s officially been confirmed that McGregor will now not be appearing at all this year, with an appearance now unlikely to happen until 2025. In this piece, I’m going to try and break down why neither the UFC nor McGregor appear to be keen on getting Conor back in the octagon any time soon.

Conor McGregor: Has “Mystic Mac’s” Motivation Vanished?

The easiest explanation as to why Conor himself hasn’t seemed eager to return is fairly simple – motivation (or lack thereof).

The truth is, Conor McGregor has absolutely no need to ever strap on a pair of 4oz gloves again. To his credit, McGregor has been the master of self-marketing, and has built generational wealth for himself and his family. The problem with that is that the motivation and hunger to be the best is simply extinguished. “Marvellous” Marvin Hagler (one of the greatest middleweight boxers of all time) very famously said that: “It’s impossible to go out and do road work at 5am when you sleep in silk pyjamas” – and Hagler was absolutely right. McGregor’s mammoth matchup with Floyd “Money” Mayweather in 2017 (and his incredibly shrewd business investments) ensured that McGregor never has to fight again.

McGregor fought Floyd “Money” Mayweather in August 2017, making an estimated $100 million in the process. (Image Credit: The Independent)

One only has to look at the McGregor of now compared to the McGregor of old. Ever since his fight with Chandler was confirmed, McGregor hasn’t exactly exhibited the behaviour of a man working towards a fight with a very dangerous opponent. In fact, videos of his Lamborghini yacht, as well as social media footage of McGregor at Sturgis in South Dakota appear to show a man simply enjoying his life outside of fighting. And truthfully, could anyone blame him?

The UFC: Do They Still Want/Need The McGregor Show?

To be honest, this is the question that has intrigued/concerned me a lot more than McGregor’s side of things.

Personally, I believe that McGregor takes notions of attempting to recreate his former glory days (2016 seems very far away now, doesn’t it?). But what fascinates me is the…almost indifferent approach the UFC appear to have taken to getting Conor McGregor back in the Octagon.

Now, there might be a couple of reasons for this. It’s well known that McGregor only has a couple more fights left on his UFC contract, and it has been widely speculated that the UFC don’t want to risk someone as high profile as McGregor running down his contract and leaving for another promotion. This is a feasible and plausible explanation.

However, I think there might be another reason for this long running stalling over McGregor’s return. And that is that (and this might sound quite shocking and blunt to say), but McGregor is simply not a priority for the UFC anymore; there are other stars who can now sell out events, and who are arguably more reliable than McGregor is.

With the UFC now being a firmly mainstream, household name, do the UFC still need the Conor McGregor brand anymore? (Image Credit: TalkSPORT)

It has felt for a while now that the UFC has undergone a vast, yet subtle evolution since the COVID-19 pandemic. It feels as though the UFC, now very much being a mainstream organisation, as well as now being a publicly traded company (TKO Holdings), now know that they are capable of selling out every arena they go to, and simply do not have to rely on the (sometimes troublesome) star power that a fighter like McGregor brings. In short – Conor McGregor has made his career making MMA a stratospheric sport, and the UFC a household name. Now though, one has to wonder whether McGregor has served his purpose in making the UFC mainstream.

Overall, it seems likely that the reason for McGregor’s four year long absence is likely a mix of the above. Either way, fans will surely be disappointed (albeit not surprised) that “The Notorious” will go yet another year without making an appearance for the UFC.

Keelin McNamara

[Scratches record] Yeah, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I ended up here…or not. My name’s Keelin McNamara, and I am an AVID combat sports fan. Always have been, and probably always will be. I started writing and podcasting about MMA in the Summer of 2020 (yeah, we don’t talk about that here either). I’ve been doing it ever since, and have loved every single minute of it! Thanks for checking out whatever it is you’re reading – I hope you enjoy it!