While Conor McGregor has spent the months following his big money superfight with Floyd Mayweather posting all sorts of nonsense on social media, he’s been largely silent regarding what’s next for him in the cage. But following an interview with TMZ Sports where UFC president Dana White once again suggested McGregor may never fight again, Conor popped up on Instagram with the revelation that he’d offered to step in and fight at UFC 222 on March 3rd after its main event fell through.
Here’s his statement:
I am fighting again. Period.
I am the best at this.
I put my name forward to step in at UFC 222 to face Frankie Edgar when Max Holloway pulled out, but I was told there wasn’t enough time to generate the money that the UFC would need.
I was excited about bouncing in last minute and taking out the final featherweight, without all the rest of the stuff that comes with this game.Please respect the insane amount of work outside the fight game that I have put in.
On top of the fighting.I am here.
It is on them to come and get me. Because I am here.Yours sincerely,
The Champ Champ™
The message comes as the volume has steadily increased in the MMA community for McGregor to return to the cage and fight, or at least stop bragging about being the damn champ champ when he’s never defended either of the belts he’s won. We’re sure having a hundred million in the bank helps insulate him from the majority of that criticism, but this reveal of his willingness to step back into the Octagon on short notice seems pointed at the haters who think he’s gotten soft and fat after the Mayweather fight.
If this claim from McGregor is true, there’s obviously a lot going on behind the scenes that no one knows about. That being said, if McGregor did offer to fight Frankie Edgar following Max Holloway’s removal from the card, Frankie never got a whiff of it.
On McGregor's claim he offered to fight Frankie Edgar at UFC 222, Edgar's manager @AliAbdelaziz00 tells me, "He's full a s—. He's a liar. He should have fought Frankie two years ago."
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) February 22, 2018
Edgar, always a willing company man, went ahead and signed on to fight dangerous up-and-comer Brian Ortega at UFC 222 soon after his title fight fell out. We have to wonder how happy he is to learn the UFC killed a potential massive money fight with McGregor over fears they couldn’t maximize the disgusting haul of money to made off the Irish superstar’s MMA return.
McGregor seems very eager to fight, but not so eager to go through the endless press and media gauntlet the UFC puts him through for every fight. We already saw this in effect when the UFC pulled him from UFC 200 for skipping a press conference, and after he won the lightweight title he floated the idea of a quick fight under the condition of no media obligations. We imagine this will continue to be a bone of contention as both McGregor and the UFC attempt to squeeze every potential buck out of each other moving forward.
