Dana White says Conor McGregor will return to the cage before the end of this year. or not.
The biggest star in MMA, McGregor hasn’t competed since breaking his leg in his triple threat fight with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021. After a long hiatus to recover, McGregor is finally ready to get back on the fighting business, and he will when he takes on the man he trained against in the final season. from The ultimate fighterMichael Chandler, later this year.
speaks in UFC Vegas 73 post-fight press conferenceWhite confirmed that fans can expect an official announcement sometime during the show’s broadcast.
“This is correct [there will be an announcement during the airing of The Ultimate Fighter]White said. “There’s a fight. He has to get into the USADA pool first. He’s filling out the paperwork. I don’t know when it’s going to be done or what’s going on, but that’s his business, his dealings with USADA. But it’s all in motion.”
McGregor left USADA while recovering from a leg injury and has not yet officially entered the program. As such, once re-enlisted, McGregor will need to remain in the pool for six months before he is eligible to compete, unless the UFC grants him an exception. That doesn’t seem imminent, as earlier this week McGregor said he was in the process of re-registering with USADA, with designs to compete near the end of the year.
If McGregor is to return to the pool in the next few weeks, he’ll be free to fight in late November or December, and White confirmed that appears to be the schedule the UFC is targeting.
“That’s what we’re aiming for,” White said. “We hope to have a big fight at Madison Square Garden in November, and then a big fight in December.”