Conor McGregor has been absent from the UFC Octagon for a long time. He has not been seen fighting in mixed martial arts for 14 months. This makes fans wonder if McGregor will back in the ring soon.
According to reports, the Irish mixed martial artist (MMA) shared a picture of himself in the gym. Many believe that this manifests that he is starting to train again so he can return to the ring in March. It is noted that his last fight in 2017 was a boxing match against Floyd Mayweather. His last competition for the UFC was back in November 2016 wherein he defeated Eddie Alvarez, making him the first dual-weight champion.
McGregor is due to defend his lightweight title in a fight against Tony Ferguson, although there is no confirmation from him yet if he will still compete. However, there is a possibility that he will be back in March due to a warning from UFC president Dana White. He pointed out that McGregor needs to defend his belt.
"As long as Conor is willing to fight by March, we could do Khabib versus Tony and then the winner fights Conor for the title," White said, according to Yahoo! Sports. "Or, if Conor wants to sit out until next fall, then we'd have to make Khabib versus Tony for the title, not the interim title."
"The Notorious One" took a time off when his first son was born several months after he signed into a massive exhibition match against Mayweather. During the said match, he suffered a TKO loss at the 10th round since he was not able to defend himself from the barrage of shots from Mayweather.
Since White is giving McGregor until March to defend his title, before he gets stripped off from it, fans are wondering if he will return to UFC or to boxing. According to his head coach John Kavanagh, he is currently doing regular training despite a lot of things going on in his life outside fighting. He added that McGregor will be back for UFC, saying that boxing was a nice detour, but he will be back in the octagon this year.
