"Cold hard facts" - Fans agree with Chael Sonnen saying Conor McGregor's "championship run is over"
Chael Sonnen recently claimed that Conor McGregor is past the point of making another run for UFC gold. 'The American Gangster' also believes that McGregor himself is unaware of the fact that his title run is over.
A majority of fans seemingly agree with Sonnen on the subject. Fans believe that 'The American Gangster' is just pointing out facts even though they might be hard to swallow. @chadm86 wrote:
"Cold hard facts"
Others opined that the Dubliner's title run was over when he lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov, back in 2018. @nyslyr91 wrote:
"It's been over since after khabib"
Some fans, however, refuse to count Conor McGregor out and believe that the Irishman might only be a few wins away from being relevant in the title picture once again.
One fan in particular noted that uncrowned lightweight champ Charles Oliveira and recently dethroned light heavyweight champ Glover Texeira did not appear likely to win UFC gold a few years back. aljos_bodguard_x2 wrote:
"Can’t count him out tho. If we said 5 years ago that glovers championship run was still alive everyone would’ve called me crazy, same for olivera"
Conor McGregor's manager claims the Irishman has been "training like a madman"
At one point, Beneil Dariush was concerned about Conor McGregor jumping the queue for a lightweight title shot. Even former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira was openly seeking a money-fight against McGregor, and UFC president Dana White did not entirely dismiss the idea. Meanwhile, 'The Notorious' also hinted at a move up to welterweight to challenge the then champion Kamaru Usman.
However, both the lightweight and welterweight title pictures have changed substantially since then. While 'The Nigerian Nightmare' was recently dethroned by Edwards, Oliveira is scheduled to fight Islam Makhachev for the vacant title after getting stripped off his title due to a controversial weight miss.
Meanwhile, Conor McGregor hasn't hinted at a potential return date and has also stated that his broken leg is yet to fully recover. However, McGregor's manager Tim Simpson claims that the Dubliner has been training "like a madman" twice a day, even while he vacations in Europe on his superyacht. Simpson said in an interview with MMA Junkie:
"The leg is still healing. I think there’s a little bit more to go on that, but he’s been training like a madman twice a day, every day. He’s got his full team out there: the McGregor Fast team, all his health and fitness guys, physio, boxing, coaching. He’s been going hard. He’s been training super hard. He’s in amazing shape – just final adjustments to get that leg back where it needs to be.”
Watch Simpson's interview with MMA Junkie below: