With each passing day, the likelihood of Conor McGregor ever returning to competitive action seems to grow smaller and smaller.
McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) hasn't entered the Octagon in almost four years. His last appearance ended disastrously, as he suffered a broken leg during his trilogy bout against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in 2021.
"The Notorious" was scheduled to return against Michael Chandler in June of last year, but a broken pinky toe just weeks before the event led to him pulling out due to injury.
Speaking last week at a BKFC media event, McGregor revealed that he is currently prioritizing his political ambitions over fighting, having expressed his goal of becoming president of his native Ireland.
While the Dubliner stated that he still hopes to return to the Octagon in the future, one former UFC legend believes McGregor's UFC career may finally be over.
"You've got to understand what part of it would he come back for?", Chael Sonnen asked his co-host Daniel Cormier this week on the latest episode of the podcast Good Guy, Bad Guy. "We're told by him that he doesn't need the money. We can see that his time is occupied, I mean, a lot of fighters (have) got to cling to the sport, they have nothing else to do. He's got a beating standing in front of him. We can go 55, we can go 70, we can make up a weight class.
"There isn't an athlete under contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championships located in Southern Nevada that he can beat, and I don't even mean that to be a jerk. When they bring him back, they put him in a main event. You put a guy in a main event all of a sudden you're asking him to do five rounds.
"We got a guy that can't breathe for for a full round, this is just a reality. There's nothing to come back for. The golden rule of life, my mother would tell me this when I was a little boy: 'Put yourself in their shoes, what would you do?' And there's no reason to to come back; there just isn't. There's an ass-whipping waiting for you, apparently.
"Life is good without it. He can still make headlines without it, he still gets put on our show without it. What would be the the mechanism that he needs or would draw him back? And when I really rack my brain and I'm only confined to my own creativity, when I get creative and think what would this be for I can't come up with an answer".
