Conor McGregor continues to gear up for his UFC return as he reveals the "countdown" to his next fight has begun.
McGregor has been sidelined since breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier last July and recently returned to sparring ahead of his comeback. The former two-weight champion was strictly limited to weight training during his recovery and bulked up to 190lb in the process.
He sparred with close friend and longtime training partner Cian Cowley in his first full training session earlier this month. Cowley admitted that it was like McGregor had " never left training " and that the spar between them went well.
Posting a picture of himself working the heavy bag, McGregor wrote: "Right hook tastiness, catch you soon the count down is on". McGregor originally targeted July as a return date, but UFC boss Dana White thinks that will be pushed back until late in the fall.
In the hopes of becoming the first-ever three-weight UFC champion, McGregor called out welterweight king Kamaru Usman for his return fight. Usman laughed off his call out and vowed to " murder " McGregor if they fought.
UFC commentator Joe Rogan is against the idea of McGregor fighting Usman after a long lay-off. He thinks the Irishman should take a warm-up fight before challenging a fighter of Usman level, as he said on the Hotboxin ' podcast. If Conor wants the most chance of success, I would say fight a guy who is a little below championship-level.
"Maybe like a guy on the come-up, who Conor has an advantage over, but is still a competitive fight. Give him a test but don’t put him in there right away with Usman. I think when boxers come back from a long layoff and they come back from a loss, one thing that boxers do that’s smart is they have a tune-up fight.
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"I think there’s a reason why they’ve been using tune-up fights forever like astute managers. They know you got to knock the dust off and you’ll be better in the next performance.”
McGregor confirmed with Mirror Fighting that he will return at welterweight despite having spent most of his career fighting at featherweight and lightweight. He will likely have to wait for a fight with Usman, as the pound-for-pound No.1 is pencilled in to defend his belt against Leon Edwards.
Usman vs Edwards will likely take place in July, but the promotion is yet to officially announced the fight. Edwards recently laughed off reports that he had been made an offer from the UFC to step aside and allow McGregor to face Usman.
