Count Din Thomas among those who are frustrated with Conor McGregor.
Thomas, a former UFC lightweight turned fight analyst, has grown tired of the ride McGregor has taken everyone on for his highly-anticipated return to the octagon. “The Notorious” has been teasing a return to action since recovering from a nasty leg break and coaching opposite Michael Chandler on Season 31 of The Ultimate Fighter last year.
Ever since then, months have been targeted, and even specific dates have been proposed, but McGregor has yet to lock down a fight against Chandler, or anyone else for that matter.
“I don’t like playing with people’s emotions like that,” Thomas told Sportsnaut. “I don’t like when a guy has as much leverage as he does to be able to do what he’s doing, to be able to string Michael Chandler along. To be able to have an entire season of TUF revolve around him, and him totally disrespect that whole show and not show up half the time. Then when it comes to fighting, I just don’t like him stringing the entire community along.”
McGregor’s return has seen its hurdles. If you ask the former two-division champion, he says he’s anxious to step into the octagon, but returning to the USADA pool caused a delay. Now that McGregor is back on track when it comes to anti-doping testing, it seems the ball is in his court.
For Thomas, the waiting game has grown old, and wishes that fans could focus on the other active fighters who are currently performing at a high level.
“I’m hoping that we just forget about him,” Thomas said. “I really wish we could just forget about him. So, he obviously makes a ton of money for us to not forget about him, and the UFC obviously has a lot of faith that when he does fight it’s going to really do numbers. I just don’t like giving a guy that much power. I wish we could just forget about him. Like me personally, I forgot about him. The fanbase still likes him. The fanbase would still want to watch him fight. He’s got this movie coming out. I thought maybe he would fight to promote this movie.”
McGregor plays the role of Knox in the upcoming remake of “Road House” alongside Jake Gyllenhaal, which releases on Prime Video on March 21. Acting is just one of the many avenues McGregor has tapped into to keep the revenue rolling in while his fight career is seemingly in limbo.
UFC CEO Dana White said he’s hoping a fight with McGregor and Chandler comes together in the fall, which would be the latest proposed timeline for a return yet.
“How do you already rule out the summer? It’s February,” Thomas said. “You ruled out the summer? I might even fight in the summer. I haven’t even ruled it out yet and I’ve been retired for over a decade. I don’t get it.”
