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Despite his last victory coming all the way back in January 2020, Conor McGregor remains the UFC’s biggest and most bankable star.
Conor McGregor has not fought since breaking his leg in his third clash with Dustin Poirier in the summer of 2021. However, ‘The Notorious’ now appears to have his next fight set, as he’s scheduled to face Michael Chandler later on in 2023.
The two lightweight rivals will first appear as coaches on the 31st season of The Ultimate Fighter, which is set to debut on May 30. This suggests McGregor’s clash with Chandler should come at some point after the season ends on August 15.
Despite this, former UFC middleweight title challenger Chael Sonnen seems to believe that ‘The Notorious’ may never return to the octagon.
In a recent video posted to his YouTube channel, ‘The American Gangster’ discussed the future for the Irish superstar after being pointed to a video of him playing roulette this weekend.
Sonnen labeled the question of whether McGregor would ever return as "fair game:"
“I do think that topic is fair game. It’s certainly not what we’ve been told is going to happen with Conor...we know nothing. We know that there’s no match, no way against Chandler, no 155lbs or 170lbs, no training camp in Big Bear they’re in the middle of. Nothing we’ve been told is accurate...but that’s okay.”
‘The American Gangster’ went onto suggest that Chandler ought to "wake up:"
“At some point Chandler is gonna wake up and realise that, I don’t have a fight coming up with Conor, which means I don’t have a fight coming up at all.”
After labeling the fight as a “really good match,” Sonnen continued to question the idea of McGregor’s comeback, suggesting that nobody really had enough information to state outright that the Irishman would return to face ‘Iron Mike’.
Watch Chael Sonnen’s take on Conor McGregor below.
What do we know about Conor McGregor’s leg injury?
Conor McGregor suffered a severely broken left tibia during his fight with Dustin Poirier in their trilogy bout at UFC 264. He was taken from the octagon on a stretcher after the bout had ended.
Although the fight was declared a TKO in favour of Poirier, McGregor was determined to suggest that the fight should be considered a ‘doctor stoppage’.
Some gruesome photos of the injury later emerged, showing the limb looking bent and swollen just above the ankle.
‘The Notorious’ headed for surgery after the clash and has not fought since. However, October 2022 saw him take to his Twitter account to suggest that the injury was now a “distant memory,” labeling the leg a “lethal weapon.”
More footage of McGregor training has since been released in the early part of this year, suggesting that his injury has now fully healed.
