BTG 196 - McGregor finally coming back to MMA?

Hello and welcome to another episode of Breaking the Guard. On today's episode, is McGregor finally coming back to MMA? The answer seems to be yes. We have been teased many times before by Conor and just left hanging. Seems to be official now. He is on the main event of July 11th UFC card against none other than Max Holloway. Now, he had I think his second UFC fight was against Max where he won that fight. So, there is story to the rematch, especially since Max has gone on to become a champion and do some crazy things including that memorable knockout against Justin Gaethje in the final 10 seconds. So, it'll be interesting to see that. They're also alluding to well, not them, but Conor, how he already has the next fight set up. And or the date set up rather. And he says it's going to be against Justin Gaethje now. It's a lot of big talk from arguably the biggest star MMA or the UFC has ever produced. Is he just talking more than he can actually fulfill? I don't know because he's 37 now. He's He's out of the fight game for 5 years. He didn't have a good run. The last two fights were uh Dustin beat him. And then named him. So the the the the motivation is another thing with uh Conor cuz he's in and out. He's doing his crazy PR schemes. So going against somebody like Max who's not distracted who is very focused. And since this is a rematch, he honestly wants to clear that stain from his record. All the advantages in my mind psychologically go to Max. If McGregor is able to win this fight which if it happens, I won't think he would. But if he does it does then potentially set up that Justin Gaethje fight. I think even Israel Adesanya said the that fight, the money it would it would make would feed generations which it probably would. The if they build that right, man, that would be a huge super fight. Obviously another title run for McGregor. Is that deserved? Probably not. I mean, fighting Max Holloway is already a big jump considering his inactivity. But you know, the UFC does the UFC things and uh he's able to go from somebody who's retired for 5 years to now being in the top 10 or challenging somebody at least in the top 10. But, I don't see him pulling it off. I think he's been on the sidelines too long. He has too many distractions. And he's trying to recapture old glory that's not his to capture anymore. Let's see. I mean, that's what fighting's all about. It's about proving something. And clearly, he still has something to prove. Or maybe he's just there to collect the paychecks, which is not bad, either. It's another thing that fighting's about. But, supposing for a moment he was able to get past Max to fight Justin Gaethje, I don't know if that works out well for him, either. Everybody thinks, first of all, Conor's another guy that's moving up uh in weight. And as we've seen against another guy who Remember that Justin Gaethje is a spoiler. He's the guy that people think uh he's not that technical. I'm going to run through him. I'm going to out-finesse him. And it just doesn't work that way. The guy is tough as nails. As he had said in his post-fight commentary, he needs to be studied because he doesn't seem to get damaged, at least from the appearances. He doesn't get cuts, doesn't get bruises. He ate a load of punishment in that last fight, right? And came out on top. And I think what Conor needs to pay attention to was that >> [laughter] >> the guy that he just beat idolized Conor McGregor and did everything [clears throat] he could even copying that tattoos and stuff. So, if somebody who's made their style similar to yours just got their ass handed to them. Well, that's being going a little over the top, but he got beat soundly. You have to question what your strategy is going to be. Because I don't know if Conor's going to be doing any better. I think that problem with guys that are power punchers, especially the very light weights, is that they keep thinking that power is going to translate as they move up, and it doesn't. Right? It can only come at a certain extent. I don't think that we would say that he's not a power puncher anymore, but he doesn't have the kill power, the one touch you're sleeping. That goes away. Now, you're still a heavy hitter, but people can eat your shots. So, even if that he manages to get past Max I wouldn't foresee him being able to get past Justin. I think it would play out similar to Ilya's fight, where he's going to land shots, but it's not going to put him and Topuria, I mean, after we're getting cheeky, he's going to be able to hurt him. That's my take on this, anyways, but not to, you know, rain on his parade, he's still going to make a huge impact on those events if he does return and does actually fight and doesn't pull out or do some silly shenanigans to get himself in trouble. He's such a mega star that he could help the UFC recapture a lot of audience that hasn't been around for a minute. So, it will be going. It's not that it's less than a month away now. It's kind of surreal. So, let's see >> [laughter] >> if Conor comes back, what happens. Uh, but I figured I'd give my two cents in and uh that's all I have for you for this week. I'll catch you all next week.