Chael Sonnen believes Conor McGregor realizes that he is not a "shoo-in" anymore, notices "humility" in latest comments

Conor McGregor's return to action in the UFC will be against Michael Chandler following the conclusion of 'The Ultimate Fighter' (TUF) season 31 where the two are coaches.

Former UFC middleweight Chael Sonnen weighed in on a deleted reply from McGregor to Chris Curtis on Twitter. The reply addressed the controversy surrounding TUF participants and the Irishman's influence over the same.

Sonnen singled out a sentence in the reply and read between the lines:

“Conor went a little bit further in this and he said, ‘I’m just trying to get my own name back in the mix,' okay great. Stop everything. Stop everything. That was an extremely rare peek behind the curtain. That was probably even a mistake, probably something that Conor swallowed real deep and thought I shouldn’t have said that. I wish I wouldn’t have said that. It was a very rare look behind the curtain. Red panty night is still real. The biggest star in this sport is still real. The opponent of this guy is gonna make more money than he ever has in his career."

Sonnen added:

"Those things are still real. And Conor said, 'I’m just trying to get my own name back out there.' So there’s a lot of truth to that, there’s a humility that comes with that. But it’s not anything that Conor has ever said before or that he would say. Now we have our answer of does Conor understand that being out with an injury, returning after that, that you’re not a shoo-in. Yes, it looks like Conor gets it.”

Check out Sonnen's full comments below:

Conor McGregor threatens to "kill" Tom Aspinall over disrespectful comments

UFC heavyweight Tom Aspinall recently downplayed Conor McGregor's return to the octagon in an interview. The injured fighter expressed his excitement at watching Jon Jones vs. Ciryl Gane as opposed to 'The Notorious'.

McGregor did not take kindly to the comments and threatened Aspinall in a series of tweets. The former lightweight champion vowed to sabotage the British heavyweight's most recent sponsorship deal with Gym King and also issued death threats:

"Bum pr*ck. Say sayonara to that gk deal kid. Starve you and kill you I will you f*cking disrespectful prick. Don't ever speak my name in disrespect again. Mush potato head."

Conor McGregor later deleted the posts.

Check out the screenshots of the tweets below:

Conor McGregor's tweets [via @TheNotoriousMMA]