Conor McGregor is expecting to return to the UFC in 2024, according to his agent Audie Attar.
McGregor has not fought since 2021 when he suffered a second straight defeat to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264, sustaining a broken leg that left him unable to continue, losing by technical knockout.
The former two-weight world champion has flirted with retirement, though a fight was planned with Michael Chandler after the pair coached against each other in “The Ultimate Fighter”.
That fight is yet to materialise, but Attar insists McGregor does still plan to return to the octagon, telling Fox News Digital: “His competitive fire is still there from an athletic perspective, even though he doesn’t have to compete. He wants to compete. I think that’s key. He’s excited to get back in there.
“Being able to not only get past that hurdle [of injury] and start to really ramp up training, and then has his eyes set on his return into the octagon in 2024, is exciting. I would expect him to fight – [we] don’t have a set date yet, but sometime, let’s call it April.”
I’ll be back. pic.twitter.com/d6vnr7tIEE
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) November 13, 2023
McGregor’s last win in the UFC, against Donald Cerrone at UFC 246, was all the way back in 2020, but Attar still believes the 35-year-old can return to the very top, saying: “The fight game is just different.
“You see some of the best fighters that have the potential no matter how long they’re off. You can still see the peak for a combat sports athlete really to be in that mid-30s [range].
“At the end of the day, it’s about the work you put in, the preparation. I think the fight IQ is at an all-time high at this stage, again, because they’ve been through everything most fighters dream of.
“And that gives them the ability to take all that data, if you will, and apply that into their preparation and practice and hopefully continue to evolve as an athlete as well. It yields the performance and result they want come fight night.”
