Has Conor McGregor's Return Date To The UFC Been Set?
If you're someone who takes pleasure in watching two humans pummel one another to within an inch of their lives, then rejoice! If you particularly enjoy if one of these aforementioned ham-fisted bruisers being Irish, then rejoice yet harder. And if you specifically want that Irish person, mercilessly obliterating the fragile doughy body of a fellow human in a blizzard of punches, kicks and the occasional lick (mind-games, it's all about mind-games) to be Conor McGregor then, I don't know if you have any reserves of rejoicing you've yet to plumb, but rejoice for all your worth.
It's being reported, admittedly by the Irish Mirror, reporting on a Sunday World story, that Conor McGregor is set for a return to the octagon at the end of the year, on December 30. He is apparently set to once again fight Nate Diaz in Las Vegas. It's unclear whether they will once again fight at welterweight or whether McGregor will look for Diaz to drop down to Lightweight.
In the wake of McGregor's loss to Floyd Mayweather it was always a question of 'when' and not 'if' he'd make his return to the punch-zone, or 'octagon' as the more traditional of you may refer to it. Despite the fact that his prestige within the UFC remains unblemished by the defeat, McGregor is, and I may shock you with this revelation, a man with something of an ego. As such it's easy to imagine that he wants to make a statement with his return, to further cement his status as a UFC great, to assuage his damaged pride after his defeat against Mayweather. Thus it's not impossible to conceive that, having fought Diaz twice at Welterweight, McGregor may be looking at more forrays in that weight-class. An attempt to become the first UFC fighter to, not only be the champion of two weight classes, but of three, seems exactly the sort of whimsically ambitious to cement over any damage to his ego.
Given that, the proposed fight is little more than a rumour though, this is mere speculation on speculation. The last tweet McGregor put out was to thank Dolce and Gabbana for sorting him out with some matching 'baby and daddy shoes' and I feel, even for the most pie-eyed optimists, it's difficult to read any sub-text in that which could possibly be alluding to his awaited comeback.
Thank you stefanogabbana and @dolcegabbana for my matching baby and daddy shoes! https://t.co/gmLqsosY01
— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) September 17, 2017
Until his return to the battering-precinct is confirmed, I suppose to sate our blood-lusts, we'll just have to go back to watching grown men fight in the wee hours in rural pub carparks. Or watch some other UFC fights.