Conor McGregor is back in the UFC. The Irish fighter announced his return during his presence at the O2 Arena in London to watch the boxing match between Anthony Joshua and Robert Helenius. ‘The Notorious’ (22-6) confirmed that he will fight in the UFC in December against Michael Chandler (23-8) .
And he went further. He also found out that as early as 2024 he will step into the octagon twice more to first measure himself against Justin Gaethje and then close the trilogy against Nate Diaz.
“Chandler next December and then Gaethje‘s BMF and then we’ll do the Nate trilogy,” McGregor claimed.
McGregor has been sidelined since he suffered a horrific fracture against Dustin Poirier in 2021. Prior to his return to competition, ‘The Notorious’ had to undergo six months of anti-doping testing and have a minimum of at least two negative tests (more can be done, and they must all be negative) as McGregor was left out of the USADA testing pool that tracks all active athletes.
An active athlete officially registered in a competition or circuit in the United States does not leave the control group, but in McGregor‘s case, he did, as his inactivity was going to be long.
McGregor and Chandler know each other well. They were the stars of the last edition of ‘The Ultimate Fighter 31’, the UFC reality show, which Chandler‘s team won. During this duel, McGregor already warned that he would fight again in December.
For his part, the Irishman and Gaethje, a new BMF belt, got into a spat on Twitter in early August and included a “contract” in their discussions.
“Did you sign the contract, big guy?”, Gaethje shouted at McGregor. He went from “I don’t fight someone on steroids” to dropping that the UFC wanted to match them. The Irishman was quick to throw out a “signed.”
Diaz-McGregor trilogy
The fights between Diaz and McGregor are considered the best in the history of the UFC, at the time, they grabbed the world’s attention for facing two of the most popular fighters.
The first confrontation was at UFC 196 with victory for the Californian over the Irishman, but in the rematch at UFC 202, the battle in the cage went to ‘The Notorious’, which left pending a third fight.
Read More: World News | Entertainment News | Celeb News
Marca
