Conor McGregor has been linked with comeback bouts against 4 fighters only weeks after being considered an 'irrelevant' has-been
- Conor McGregor has been linked with four separate comeback bouts recently.
- It is a far cry from a few weeks ago when the Irish athlete was called "irrelevant" and was being frozen out of the biggest UFC fights.
- McGregor has been linked with UFC fights against Justin Gaethje, Frankie Edgar, and Dustin Poirier, as well as a boxing rules contest versus middleweight contender Luke Keeler.
- McGregor's coach John Kavanagh told Business Insider there is a new rumor every day. He said: "Bring them all on."
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
DUBLIN - Conor McGregor has been linked with comeback bouts against four fighters only weeks after being considered an "irrelevant" has-been in the sport of mixed martial arts.
A former two-weight world champion with the UFC, McGregor's charismatic personality saw him transcend combat sports.
But now he is on a two-fight losing streak. He was stopped in the 10th round of his boxing rules contest against Floyd Mayweather in 2017, and Khabib Nurmagomedov submitted him in the fourth round of a wild fight at UFC 229 the following year. The back-to-back defeats mean he has not won a match since 2016.
This, combined with troubles in his personal life - from slapping the phone out of a fan's hand and walking away with it, to throwing a punch at an older man in a Dublin pub - has seen him frozen out of the UFC's biggest fights.
The dominant lightweight Tony Ferguson, for example, told ESPN last month that McGregor is "irrelevant" because he hasn't competed all year. Nurmagomedov also said the only athlete deserving of a shot at his UFC lightweight title is Ferguson, rather than McGregor.
But just weeks after being called an "irrelevant" has-been, McGregor is now linked with four fighters, three of whom are contracted to the UFC.
Last month, the in-form wrestler Justin Gaethje destroyed Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone in a single round, then said he'd happily "f--- up" Conor McGregor.
The experienced bantamweight Frankie Edgar challenged McGregor to a fight just months after the Irishman asked the UFC president Dana White for the same thing. "I told him I want to fight him," Edgar said this month. "I told the UFC I want to fight him."
McGregor beat Dustin Poirier in 2014. However, the American wrestler has since risen to no.2 in the UFC's lightweight rankings and tweeted last week that he wants to fight the Irishman adding it could even happen on St. Patrick's Day.
A boxer also wants McGregor
McGregor has fought one professional boxing rules bout, and though he lost conclusively to Mayweather, the event scooped him a $100 million payday.
Though he will unlikely match that milestone with another foray in the sport, he could still attract a good payday fighting for a world title. His compatriot Luke Keeler, who we've been told McGregor angrily rang earlier this year, has offered him a route to a title.
Keeler is a top-ranked middleweight with the World Boxing Organization (WBO) and told Business Insider he expects to fight the current champion Demetrius Andrade on St. Patrick's Day in New York or Boston in 2020. Should he win, then he hopes to entice McGregor into a Dublin boxing ring so they can settle their war of words.
All Keeler hopes is that McGregor "stays sober" for long enough that it makes his dream match-up a reality.
'Bring them all on'
Business Insider recently visited the Straight Blast Gym in the Inchicore suburb of Dublin. McGregor's long-time trainer John Kavanagh runs the gym.
The MMA coach Kavanagh, who trains several top fighters like the Bellator prospect James Gallagher and the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship brawler Artem Lobov, was reticent to talk too much about McGregor and any potential comeback. However, he did say his most famous athlete, "loves martial arts and competing."
When asked about potential comeback opponents like Edgar and Keeler, Kavanagh told us: "Bring them all on."
He said: "He's in phenomenal shape right now and we're back training away. I don't have any scoop to give you about an upcoming fight, I don't know of any. I tell those guys, the management team and him, 'Let me know when you have it.'
"When something's confirmed, I'm sure I'll be told. We'll train for it, we'll fight, and that's that. I hear the rumors, same as you. I don't even bother texting him about it because there's a new rumor every day. I'd love to see him against anybody. Bring them all on.
"I'm his coach, I love mixed martial arts, and I believe he's arguably the best in the world."
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