Conor McGregor hasn’t competed within the UFC in roughly three-and-a-half years and the way in which issues are going, Joe Rogan isn’t positive the promotion’s largest star will ever step again into the octagon.
Rogan’s pessimistic outlook on McGregor’s preventing profession comes after the previous two-division champion misplaced a civil trial during which a girl, Nikita Hand, alleged that he raped her in a Dublin lodge room again in 2018. After almost two weeks of court docket proceedings final month, which included testimony from McGregor, a jury discovered him answerable for assault.
Though UFC CEO Dana White shrugged off the trial’s consequence being able to negatively influence McGregor’s profession, what Rogan heard from McGregor in the course of the trial has him questioning his future.
“I don’t know if Conor’s ever gonna struggle once more,” Rogan stated on a current episode of “The Joe Rogan Expertise” podcast. “I don’t know the actual particulars of that case. I do know his model of it and her model of it and what performed out within the court docket. However the actuality is that man’s partying, and he’s partying actual laborious. And he talked about it within the court docket case. He’s speaking about (doing) cocaine.”
Whereas Rogan wouldn’t go as far as to excuse McGregor’s alleged conduct within the case, in addition to different transgressions via the years, he wonders how a lot traumatic mind harm has affected McGregor and whether or not or not he lives in a perpetual state of drug dependency.
“However I believe there’s one other concern to speak about, and that’s that quite a lot of fighters, once they’ve sustained a big quantity of injury over the course of their profession – and there’s no option to not get that,” Rogan stated. “We’ve all seen Conor get beat up and knocked out. We’ve seen Conor’s sparring footage. He’s sparring professional boxers, he’s sparring elite fighters, you’re getting hit within the head lots. And quite a lot of fighters, particularly towards the top of their profession, flip to medication. And I believe there’s most likely a continuing state of discomfort that they reside in … you’re not speculated to get punched within the head a thousand instances a 12 months. It’s simply not speculated to occur, and that’s the fact of constant coaching.”
McGregor spent a very good portion of 2024 coaching for his UFC comeback after he signed on to headline UFC 303 in opposition to Michael Chandler this previous June. Nevertheless, a damaged pinky toe suffered in camp compelled McGregor to withdraw roughly 4 weeks earlier than the struggle.
It’s unclear when or if McGregor will return to the cage, with White saying it wouldn’t occur till the later portion of 2025 if that’s the case. McGregor final week raised eyebrows when he tweeted that he’s agreed to face Logan Paul in an exhibition boxing match, though that declare has but to be substantiated by White or the UFC.
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