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Conor McGregor is getting sick of waiting to make his UFC return.

The former two-division champion had a ringside seat on Saturday for the Day of Reckoning boxing pay-per-view in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia, which saw Anthony Joshua defeat Otto Wallin via fifth-round stoppage and Joseph Parker upset Deontay Wilder in a lopsided decision. Afterward, an animated McGregor spoke to TalkSPORT and erupted once the topic turned to his potential return to UFC, which remains without a concrete date in 2024.

“‘The Mac’ has loads to offer and loads to deliver,” McGregor ranted.

“The lads here [in Saudi Arabia] are talking Manny [Pacquiao in boxing], the UFC aren’t talking any. … Give me something. You know what I’m saying? I was supposed to be back in April [2024], I was supposed to be back in April. It was supposed to be December. They’ve never treated anyone [like this]. No one’s ever been treated [like this]. For all the figures I’ve brought in this game — I sell more than all of them combined, yeah? I sell more than every one of them combined.

“No one in the history of the fight game’s ever been treated the way I’m getting treated at this minute, yeah?” McGregor continued. “Through what I came through to what I bring, they f***** should open floodgates for me, yeah? And I’m waiting. I’m waiting and I’m waiting. My patience is wearing thin on me waiting.”

McGregor, 35, has been tentatively linked to a UFC return bout against Michael Chandler since coaching against the American on The Ultimate Fighter 31 in early 2023. McGregor told reporters in late October that the UFC was targeting April 2024 for his comeback fight and voiced frustration at his long layoff since his July 2021 loss to Dustin Poirier, however McGregor’s SBG Ireland coach John Kavanagh told MMA Fighting in November that the promotion delayed McGregor’s return again to a targeted bout in the “summertime.”

McGregor officially re-entered the UFC’s drug-testing pool with USADA on Oct. 8, meaning he will be eligible to compete again on April 8, 2024, per USADA rules. He submitted his first drug tests following his long-awaited reentry into the program in late October.

On Saturday, McGregor called out Pacquiao for a boxing match in multiple media appearances. In a clip captured by TNT Sports, McGregor spoke excitedly to Saudi Arabia’s minister of entertainment Turki Alalshikh about the potential bout while being seated next to soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo.

“Tell Manny to grow a set of balls and fight me at a higher weight class,” McGregor told Alalshikh. “Why not? It’s his sport. If he wants me to come down to a smaller weight, I should be able to use more of my weapons. I should be able to kick. I should be able to grapple. Shouldn’t that be fair? Wouldn’t you say? Say it to him. Is he a man or a mouse? Is Manny a man or a mouse?”

McGregor echoed similar sentiments in a separate interview with heavyweight boxer Derek Chisora for iFL TV.

In total, McGregor has fought in MMA just four times since capturing the UFC lightweight title with a 2016 win over Eddie Alvarez, sandwiching a victory over Donald Cerrone between a title loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov and back-to-back stoppage losses to Poirier.

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Unbeaten welterweight contender, Ian Garry has vowed to make up for his UFC 296 withdrawal earlier this month in February ahead of a rebooked bout with Geoff Neal, with the Dubliner delving into his battle with pneumonia ahead of his December return.

Garry, the current tenth ranked welterweight contender, was slated to make his return to the Octagon on the main card of UFC 296 last weekend in Las Vegas, taking on training partner, Vicente Luque in a welterweight pairing.

However, following confirmation that the Portmarnock striker would be missing his media obligations on Wednesday during fight week ahead of UFC 296, promotional CEO, Dana White confirmed how Garry was battling pneumonia and was forced to exit his fight with Luque in Nevada.

Ian Garry addresses widespread backlash after UFC 296

And since booking a rescheduled bout with welterweight striker, Neal for a return to the Octagon at UFC 298 in February in Anaheim, California, Garry has vowed to make up for his withdrawal from UFC 296.

“Fight week didn’t go as planned,” Ian Garry posted on his official Instagram account. “Influenza developed into pneumonia as I dropped wieght and for the first time in my career I was pulled by the UFC doctor. Flying home I met so many fans who flew out specifically to see me. F*ck. This is not how I wanted to meet you. I wanted to put on a show more than anything. Thank you for all your kind words, wonderful messages and to everyone who was there for me.”

“You might read hateful comments online but I’ve discovered they aren’t real,” Ian Garry explained. “In real life, you book flights, hotels, you drive miles, and you show up, in Vegas. I appreciate the hell out everyone and I promise I’ll make it up to you all in February.” 

Can Ian Garry return with a win over Geoff Neal at UFC 298?

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

The UFC 296 main event between Leon Edwards and Colby Covington didn’t exactly set the world on fire. Even fellow UFC welterweight Geoff Neal was ready to change the channel before the fight was over.

Despite some very heated and personal trash talk leading up to the fight, Covington failed to do much of anything over five rounds. Edwards picked him apart from the outside and even slipped in takedowns against the former All-American wrestler from Oregon State.

Edwards cruised to victory with 49-46 scorecards across the board, but Neal didn’t see much that really impressed from the champion or challenger.

“I mean, I was low-key disappointed,” Neal said about the fight on The MMA Hour. “I was expecting a more competitive fight. More action.

“I wanted to leave in the fourth round. I was watching at Buffalo Wild Wings, and I was about to just get up and leave in the fourth round, but I don’t know what was going on with Colby. He wasn’t trying to press the action, and then Leon was being real passive. I feel like I beat both those dudes. I didn’t see nothing special out of either one of them.”

Neal, who is scheduled to return to action at UFC 299 when he faces Ian Machado Garry, has danced around the top 10 rankings at welterweight for the past few years. He still hasn’t gotten close enough to earn a title shot of his own.

Neal is 2-1 in his past three fights, with wins over Vicente Luque and Santiago Ponzinibbio, but a loss in a Fight of the Night effort against Shavkat Rakhmonov in his last outing.

Ideally, Neal would like to dispatch Machado Garry in March. Then, he’d like to get at least two more fights during 2024 so he could inject himself back in the title fight conversation. After watching Edwards and Covington this past weekend, the 33-year-old fighter from Texas definitely feels confident he has what it takes to become champion.

“I already thought I could beat them, but after seeing it, I know I can f*** these dudes up,” Neal said.

While he acknowledges he’s not near the top of the division just yet, Neal can tout an impressive resume since first arriving in the UFC. It includes a unanimous decision win over Belal Muhammad when they met back in 2019.

That was the last loss on Muhammad’s record before he built a 10-fight unbeaten streak. Now, Muhammad hopes he’ll get his chance at becoming UFC champion, and even Neal believes it would be an egregious error to pass him over.

“I don’t know if he can beat Leon, but I know he deserves the next title shot,” Neal said about Muhammad. “Like all this other s***, people talking down on him, saying he’s a boring fighter. He earned it. He’s won 10 straight after his loss to me?

“Give that boy what he worked for, and then after he gets the belt, I’ll go up there and I’ll beat him up again.”

Considering the run Muhammad has gone on since the first fight, Neal has nothing but praise for his former opponent. But he welcomes the chance to run it back, especially if there’s a title on the line.

“It’s about the work he put in,” Neal said. “I wouldn’t say I’m surprised. I’m impressed. To get 10 straight wins in the welterweight division, that’s not an easy thing to do.

“[Fighting him for the title] that would be perfect. Anything that leads me to the belt is perfect, I don’t care who it is.”

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Mayra Bueno Silva faces Raquel Pennington for the vacant UFC bantamweight championship in the co-main event of UFC 297, but it took her some time to understand that.

“Sheetara” revealed on MMA Fighting’s Trocação Franca podcast that when head American Top Team coach Marcos “Parrumpa” daMatta called with the breaking news, she initially thought her opponent would be ex-champion Julianna Peña. It took her a week to fix the mixup.

“At first I thought it was going to be Julianna, so we started watching all of Julianna’s fights after dinner,” Silva said. “A week later, I found out it was against Raquel. I didn’t even think about it, I thought it was Julianna because we were planning for that, right? I was super happy, already studying for Julianna, and then, ‘No, no, no, it’s Raquel.’ I was so excited [to fight for the UFC title], I didn’t even ask who the opponent was.”

Silva admits she was “shocked” when she discovered her real opponent but added “nothing that changes my main focus.”

“Like it or not, Julianna would be more exciting as a fight,” Silva said. “Not that Raquel is a bad athlete, but Julianna promotes fights better. Raquel is not that type of person, she doesn’t talk too much. She’s the type of athlete that likes to fight, and that’s it, so I was like, ‘Damn, I’ll have to try to promote this fight on my own.’ But my total focus is the best regardless.”

“It’s hard to promote this fight, because my opponent isn’t one that likes to talk too much,” Silva added on being the co-main event for UFC 297 under Sean Strickland vs. Dricus Du Plessis. “It didn’t disappoint me that there’s a fight after mine. This fight disappointed me because it’s a fight not many people want to see. To me, my fight is the main event.”

Having said all that, from a competitive standpoint, Silva sees Pennington as a bigger test than Peña. Silva enters the cage after wins over Yanan Wu, Stephanie Egger, Lina Lansberg and Holly Holm, though the most recent victory was overturned due to a drug-test failure.

Pennington, who once challenged for the belt against Amanda Nunes in Rio de Janeiro, has won five in a row in bouts against Marion Reneau, Pannie Kianzad, Macy Chiasson, Aspen Ladd and Ketlen Vieira.

“The fight just got a bit tougher, because Raquel is tougher than Julianna, but it doesn’t matter because the focus is the same,” Silva said. “Raquel is physically stronger. She’s been through ups and downs in the organization, she’s a veteran that brings more danger in the striking area than Julianna.”

Peña is expected to face the winner of Silva vs. Pennington for the title later in 2024. But Silva envisions a different scenario after “The Venezuela Vixen” withdrew from a trilogy bout with “The Lioness” Nunes in June and didn’t recovere in time to fight in January.

“Julianna will stay injured for the rest of her career,” Silva said with a laugh. “She doesn’t want to fight. She just wants to talk. All she does is noise. I have so much fun with her. Every time she posts something about me, it’s just funny to me. I hope this fight happens, because it will fans will have so much fun. I promise to beat the crap out of her and show who’s the boss.”

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A war awaits
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UFC

Amidst reports that the UFC may be delaying McGregor’s return until July 2024, the Irish sports star has suggesting he’s talking to Saudi Arabia about a boxing bout.

Is there trouble in paradise between Conor McGregor and the UFC?

McGregor is the biggest star in mixed martial arts by far, and his return to action will be one of the biggest stories in all of sports. So why is the UFC dragging their feet on setting that up?

That’s something Conor McGregor himself would like to know. “The Notorious” was in Saudi Arabia for the big Day of Reckoning boxing card (check out highlights from that here), and he let loose some negative feelings towards the UFC regarding delays.

“The lads here are talking Manny [Pacquiao], the UFC aren’t talking any,” he said angrily. “Give me something! You know what I’m saying? I was supposed to be back in April, I was supposed to be back in April. It was supposed to be December.”

McGregor had pushed hard for a December 2023 return, but the UFC was unwilling to waive a six month USADA testing period for the Irish sports star. The six months are up by April, making McGregor available to fight on UFC 300 … but there have been reports that the UFC wants to slot him in July instead.

If that’s the case, McGregor has a right to be upset.

“They’ve never treated anyone, no one’s ever been treated [like this]. For all the figures I’ve brought in this game, I sell more than all of them combined, yeah? I sell more than every one of them combined. No one in the history of the fight game’s ever been treated the way I’m getting treated at this minute, yeah?”

“Through what I came through to what I bring, they f—ing should open floodgates for me, yeah?” he raged. “And I’m waiting. I’m waiting and I’m waiting. My patience is wearing thin on me waiting.”

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts