For the first time in his UFC career, ‘The Notorious’ Conor McGregor pulled out of a fight and now the Irishman is on damage control, trying to make it up to the MMA community. In fact, McGregor has cited multiple reasons including a toe injury including a lack of concentration. However, UFC veteran, Chael Sonnen is not having any of it.
Speaking to his Good Guy/Bad Guy co-host Daniel Cormier, Sonnen shared his skepticism on the Irishman’s return. Calling a spade a spade, ‘The American Gangster’ explained why taking on Chandler for five rounds is a tall order for the former champ.
The former middleweight said, that McGregor didn’t care about his weight class but was being put into 5 round main event fights. Explaining how difficult this was, Sonnen claimed that the Irishman was going to have a tough time with his gas tank.
“He doesn’t care about the weight class and they put him in a main event for five rounds. That is such a wildly difficult task to ask a guy who is going to have a hard time running. He is going to have a hard time filling up that gas tank with cardio and just a number of drills we in this sport will do to get our lungs into that.
The Bad Guy didn’t stop there their. Citing the differences between Chandler and McGregor, Sonnen said what while the American was discplined, Conor was the ‘most distracted’ guy in the sport.
He might be the most distracted guy in the sport and Michael Chandler just might be the most disciplined guy in the sport like this was a massively tall order….please consider giving him three rounds.”
In all honesty, the veteran does have a point here. Regardless of his psyche, a broken leg is a broken leg and improving his cardio with usual drills will be a hard nut to crack. Not to mention the fact that, McGregor’s kryptonite has always been his gas tank.
Nate Diaz made sure everyone knows that when he toyed with the Irishman during their first encounter.
Furthermore, Sonnen also relayed that five rounds with a powerhouse like Chandler is a step too far for McGregor and urged the promotion to consider putting him in a three round fight. Now, all that is for later, right now, people want to know when he returns.
While the McGregor is already hinting a return date, sometime in August or September, Dana White seems like he is not falling for that anymore.
Dana White on Conor McGregor’s possible return – “Not even worth talking”
Conor McGregor is in recovery mode right now. In fact, in the aftermath of his pullout, ‘Mystic Mac’ has revealed that he is hoping to get back in the octagon sometime in August or September.
Speaking his mind to SevereMMA in a backstage interview at Bellator Dublin, McGregor said,
“August, September, I’d love [that]. I’m in recovery mode. It’s three weeks to the day, it happened three weeks ago today.”
However, Dana White who along with his men had to scramble to make the amends did not have any of it. During the post-fight presser after UFC Saudi Arabia, Dana White was asked about McGregor’s current situation to which he said,
“I don’t know right now. Our schedule is laid out. We’ll see, I’m not doing anything until I know that Conor is healthy. It’s not even worth talking about.”
With the promotion already scheduling its events including the upcoming ones at Manchester and Perth, White did not leave any room to speculate. With that being said, its not an impossibility for the UFC to include its biggest superstar in any of the upcoming cards considering his popularity.
