What once seemed like only a matter of time now seems like wishful thinking.
Conor McGregor and Croke Park. It has been a storyline for three years now.
Three years on and we don’t seem any closer to witnessing The Notorious taking on one of the UFC’s top stars at GAA headquarters.
Earlier this year, McGregor seemed confident that his upcoming fight with Nate Diaz would be his last in Las Vegas for a while. New York was next, he declared, then Dublin. He told Severe MMA:
“F**k Vegas. F**k Vegas serious. I want East Coast next. If they don’t give me Ireland, give me East Coast next.”
"F*** Vegas!" – Conor McGregor wants fighting return to Dublin or East Coast https://t.co/uOC3FRlo0m
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) February 18, 2016
He lost to Diaz and, desperate to right that wrong, accepted a rematch in Vegas. Same weight, more money, different outcome.
McGregor is back winning again and is targeting Eddie Alvarez’ lightweight title at this weekend’s UFC 205. After that, win or lose, who knows? McGregor certainly does not.
Asked by BT Sport about the possibility of a Dublin fight in 2017, McGregor revealed he had not even spoken to the promotions new owners [WME-IMG] since their $4.2 billion take-over. He said:
“[Exhaling] I don’t even know who runs this damn company no more.
“I’ve never met them… I mean I’ve met them, to say hello, but they have never met me as a businessman or a business partner. I don’t really know what’s going on right now. Let’s figure out my own stuff.Â
“I’ll go in and capture these belts, capture all the money, wrap up the game and then they’ve got to meet the businessman, and we’ll go from there.”
McGregor will be aiming to walk into that meeting as a two-weight UFC champion.
If he beats Alvarez this weekend, he will be truly in a position of power, holding huge PPV numbers and two of the promotion’s most coveted belts.
