Watch out combat sports world: Conor McGregor is coming back, and he’s more focused now than he was in his prime.
That’s according to BKFC’s David Feldman, who has had McGregor as a business partner and promotional hype man for his bare knuckle events over the past couple of years. “The Notorious” went above and beyond the call of duty in his hyping up of BKFC, becoming a fixture at press conferences where he practically radiated with insane energy.
Now Feldman says he’s taken that energy and is putting
it all towards another UFC comeback.
“I just wanna tell you guys this: the best times ten Conor McGregor you’ve ever seen right now,” Feldman told The Boys In The Back. “Better than he was when he was in his prime. The most focused, just wants to do everything right. He’s training his ass off each and every day. He’s eating right. He’s going to church. He’s doing everything he’s supposed to do.”
“This is not the Conor McGregor that we’ve seen in the past couple years. This is the best Conor McGregor that I’ve personally ever seen. And I’m talking on TV and everywhere. I’ve never seen a Conor McGregor like this, more focused than I ever ever thought he ever could get, but he is.”
It’s worth noting that Feldman has been talking up McGregor’s return to fighting (both with the UFC and eventually BKFC) for a long time now. Even when the Mac was drinking, smoking, and potentially doing other things, Feldman has always been there talking him up. But in this case, it’s not just Feldman that is saying these things. By all accounts McGregor has been training more seriously than he has since an aborted UFC 303 fight back in 2024.
That return was scuttled due to a broken pinky toe, and the UFC never bothered to rebook it. Since then McGregor has publicly called out his promotion for refusing to book him while suggesting he was looking forward to free agency after the final two fights on his contract were over. Most recently he suggested his current contract with the UFC was ‘void’ due to the company’s new media deal with Paramount+ that ended pay-per-view in the United States.
All of this leaves us wondering whether the UFC will really give Conor McGregor another fight, let alone star billing at the White House.
“I don’t know the negotiations going on as far as financially, so I don’t know,” Feldman said of McGregor fighting on that card. “I know that Conor had said publicly that his contract was a little shaky because of the pay-per-view points that he had in there. But I’m sure that the UFC wants Conor McGregor to fight. He’s gonna fight, and they’re gonna make it work.”
“And it makes sense for him to fight the White House, right? I mean, he visited the White House. He’s friends with Trump. He’s friends with Trump’s wife. It just makes sense for him to be here. So my confidence level is probably around 99%.”
We wish our confidence level was the same. The UFC refused to fight McGregor through the pandemic because they weren’t willing to do a “Notorious” fight without the $20+ million in gate revenue he generates with a crowd. Now we have the White House event, which also won’t have a gate. Set aside all the other squabbling over a new contract that needs sorting for McGregor to fight. Will the bean counters at TKO give up $20 million to let Conor fight at the White House?
We are not 99% confident they will.
