UFC: Dana White says Conor McGregor is ‘chomping at the bit’ to fight again
- Irishman is still recovering from a broken leg sustained in a July loss to Dustin Poirier
- Despite gruesome injury, McGregor ‘still has the desire to compete and the desire to fight’ says UFC president White
UFC president Dana White says former two-division champion Conor McGregor is eager to get back in the Octagon, even with a long road to recovery still ahead.
McGregor (22-6) has not fought since a stoppage loss to Dustin Poirier in July, which left him with a broken fibula.
The 33-year-old Irishman’s body is still not ready for another fight, but from the sounds of it, his mind is.
“He’s chomping at the bit to get back in there and compete again,” White said on the Jim Rome Podcast on Wednesday.
Speaking on Twitter recently, McGregor informed his fans he expects to be back to full-contact mixed martial arts sparring by April, and back in the Octagon soon thereafter.
White didn’t mention a time frame for McGregor’s next fight, but agreed that April makes sense for a return to regular training.
“It’s going to be a while before he can start to put some torque on that leg,” White said. “For him to start training again in April is probably about right.”
Whenever McGregor is ready to fight again, White emphasised that, as far as he can tell, the Irish star is as hungry as ever.
“He obviously still has the desire to compete,” the UFC boss said. “You never hear Conor going, ‘I just don’t have the desire for this any more’, you know what I mean? Yes he’s obviously very rich, and he’s training like Rocky in Rocky III, but he still has the desire to compete and the desire to fight. So we’ll see what happens.”
McGregor’s July loss was his second in a row to Poirier, after he was knocked out by the American in January. That defeat was preceded by a quick knockout victory over the veteran Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in the welterweight division, and a submission loss to former lightweight king Khabib Nurmagomedov.
