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Conor McGregor is struggling to stay motivated as the UFC continues to delay his return to the Octagon.

It’s been nearly three years since the Irishman suffered a brutal leg break in his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021. McGregor’s return to action appears to be rapidly approaching, but thus far no official date has been locked down. On New Year’s Eve, the former two-division champion announced that his quote-unquote “greatest comeback in combat sports history” would go down on June 29 during the culmination of this year’s International Fight Week in Las Vegas.

While McGregor’s assumed opponent, Michael Chandler, has backed up his claims of the June date, UFC CEO Dana White has downright refused to confirm any details and has regularly placed the blame for additional delays on McGregor’s shoulders.

Speaking with The MAC Life while attending the premiere of his first feature film, Road House, Conor McGregor revealed that he has gone through multiple training camps thus far and is finding it increasingly difficult to stay motivated as the UFC continues to push back his return date.

“I’m wrapping up this tour, I’ve got the St. Paddy’s Day festivities coming up, and then I’m gonna get back and regroup,” McGregor said. “I’m gonna test myself physical wise on the treadmill and go about the McGregor fast way and get myself right back.

“I had a camp in Cannes, the South of France, I had a camp in Dubai where I had world champions training with me where I was hoping for a December date, then a January date. Then it keeps getting pushed back, then I lose interest and stop full training for a while. Not stop training, I will always train, but stop full training and drinking a little back. I’m going to go back and regroup.”

You Can Catch Conor McGregor in ‘Road House’ on March 21

There’s no telling when fight fans will get their Conor McGregor fix inside the Octagon, but on March 21, you can catch the Irishman as a badass named Knox in Road House. Described as an “adrenaline-fueled reimagining of the 80s cult classic,” the film stars Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain, Donnie Darko) as “ex-UFC fighter Dalton who takes a job as a bouncer in a Florida Keys roadhouse, only to discover that paradise is not all it seems.”

The film made its premiere on March 8 and thus far, has mostly favorable reviews, sporting a 71% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That score is likely to change once the movie premieres on Amazon Prime Video later this month, but it’s an undeniably encouraging start for a picture that was plagued by a variety of production issues.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Despite a one-sided victory in his first title defense, Sean O’Malley has received an indefinite medical suspension following UFC 299.

On Thursday, the Florida State Athletic Commission revealed the medical suspensions from this past Saturday’s pay-per-view event in Miami, which included both O’Malley and his opponent, Chito Vera.

While the champ received an indefinite sit after a unanimous decision win, what that ultimately means is he’ll need medical clearance before competing again.

Vera, who looked to wear more of the damage, received a 60-day suspension.

Co-main event fighters Dustin Poirier and Benoit Saint Denis also received medical suspensions. Poirier, who won the fight with an incredible second-round knockout, received 45 days, while Saint Denis got 60 days.

Four other competitors from the card received indefinite suspensions, including Jack Della Maddalena and Gilbert Burns following Maddalena’s come-from-behind stoppage win in the featured bout, and both Philipe Lins and Ion Cutelaba following their light heavyweight preliminary bout, which Lins won by decision.

Here are the full medical suspensions for UFC 299 per the Florida Athletic Commission (specific medical conditions or injuries are not revealed by the commission due to medical privacy laws):

Sean O’Malley: Indefinite suspension

Marlon Vera: 60-day suspension

Dustin Poirier: 45-day suspension

Benoit Saint Denis: 60-day suspension

Kevin Holland: 30-day suspension

Jack Della Maddalena: Indefinite suspension

Gilbert Burns: Indefinite suspension

Petr Yan: 30-day suspension

Song Yadong: 30-day suspension

Jailton Almeida: 30-day suspension

Mateusz Gamrot: 30-day suspension

Rafael dos Anjos: 30-day suspension

Pedro Munhoz: 30-day suspension

Philipe Lins: Indefinite suspension

Ion Cutelaba: Indefinite suspension

Michal Oleksiejczuk: 60-day suspension

Josh Parisian: 60-day suspension

Joanne Wood: 30-day suspension

Maryna Moroz: 30-day suspension

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It might be time for Jake Paul and Logan Paul’s parents to sit down for a family meeting.

On the heels of the announcement that Jake Paul will fight Mike Tyson in a boxing match in July on Netflix, Logan Paul took to his podcast to reveal he was approached with a similar offer to clash with the former heavyweight champion. Logan says he ultimately rebuffed the offer despite feeling like he could beat Tyson in the ring.

“I said no to fighting Mike Tyson,” Paul said on his Impaulsive podcast. “I was offered it, but not on Netflix and not for a big ass bag. It was just like, this could be a real fight.

“I’ve been asked, ‘Do you think you could beat Mike Tyson?’ My answer was and will be yes. I just think he’s too old. That’s crazy. He’s senile.”

It didn’t take long for that statement to get back to Jake Paul, who went on his Betr podcast to respond to the claims from his brother about a potential fight with Tyson.

Jake laid out all the details about how the fight actually came together and promised that Tyson wasn’t out searching for an opponent for his comeback. Instead, he says it was a lucrative offer from Netflix that got both fighters on board for the fight.

“That situation is always tough for me because I hate that my brother and I’s relationship sometimes has to be aired out, but it seems as if the court of public opinion is the only thing that steers him in the right direction,” Paul said. “But it is weird to lie, to blatantly just lie.

“Me and Nakisa [Bidarian] and Most Valuable Promotions curated a deal with Netflix. We signed a deal with Netflix and our goal was to go get another fighter to fight me. There was tiers of three tiers, A, B, and C. An ‘A’ level fighter, we would get this much money. A ‘B’ level fighter, we would get this much money. A ‘C’ level fighter, we would get this much money. We were the ones that brought the Netflix deal to Tyson and he was an ‘A’ level fighter. So Tyson was never in the market offering people to fights for anyone to turn down. Yes, it is weird to go online and lie.”

Jake has engaged in verbal beefs with his brother before during his boxing career, but it appears this particular incident really upset him.

Rather than just celebrate the fact that he landed a massive fight against one of the most well-known boxers in history, Jake felt like Logan was trying to steal his shine while claiming he was the first choice before Tyson moved onto a different opportunity.

“It’s tough,” Paul said. “Then it’s like, why is my own brother trying to make me look the second option for Tyson. Like, ‘Oh yeah, I turned down that deal.’ No, you didn’t. That’s a complete lie. Why are you fabricating lies?”

Ideally, Jake says he would prefer not to air his family’s dirty laundry in public, but that seems to be a recurring problem when it comes to dealing with his brother.

“I am always having to defend myself and be undermined and be little bro’d,” Paul said. “Then I have to just not allow it to happen. I’m just taking shots and then I have to explain because I get thrown into it.”

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In hindsight, Cory Sandhagen believes he shouldn’t have given Marlon “Chito” Vera as much of a chance as he did against Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Bantamweight champion, Sean O’Malley.

UFC 299 was a rough night for Ecuador’s Vera, who competed in his first career title tilt against his rival, O’Malley, this past weekend (March 9, 2024). Vera was battered throughout the five-round affair en route to a unanimous decision loss (watch highlights) that had all rounds in favor of “Sugar.”

Vera, 31, has raised the question of controversy since the night, but ultimately underperformed in the eyes of most, including his previous successor, Sandhagen.

“Chito obviously had no business being in the cage with O’Malley,” Sandhagen said on his YouTube channel (h/t MMA Fighting). “Really tough showing by Chito. Awesome performance by O’Malley. You’ve got to give the guy all the credit in the world even though he was fighting like a homeless-looking Chito.

“I’m going to try to spend this whole breakdown not s—tting on Chito the whole time, but it’s probably going to turn into me s—tting on Chito the whole time,” he continued. “That fight really frustrated me because it was one, unbelievably uncompetitive. Two, I feel like a dummy for thinking Chito was going to do better because that’s almost literally what all of his fights look like unless he gets some type of knockout. And three, I just think it’s not that cool that Chito even got that opportunity to begin with, because like I said, that’s what we all should have seen coming. I don’t know why I bought into the Chito hype. That was really stupid of me.”

Vera was rewarded his title shot off the heels of a unanimous decision over Pedro Munhoz at UFC 292 in August 2023. Directly prior, Vera suffered a five-round split decision defeat to Sandhagen, who has since beaten Rob Font and extended his winning streak to three.

In the immediate title picture, Sandhagen will likely have to wait behind Merab Dvalishvili before he gets his title shot. He just hopes O’Malley doesn’t hold up the division with an attempt at Featherweight gold.

“O’Malley won almost the same kind of way I beat Chito, except he hit Chito a lot harder and he hit Chito a lot more,” Sandhagen said. “So good on him for doing that. Instead of overwhelming Chito with [wrestling] shots and stuff like that, he started overwhelming Chito with a ton of feints. Didn’t give him the same look every single time. … O’Malley kept it super dynamic the entire time, didn’t give him the same look too many times in a row, and that’s why he won.”

For complete UFC 299 results and play-by-play, click HERE.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Jiri Prochazka is perfectly comfortable being in pitch black for days at a time. But that’s indoors.

The former UFC light heavyweight champ can still feel the effects of an outdoor scare one year ago that left him stumbling near-blind in the wilderness outside Las Vegas. All he has to do is look at his toe.

“I wanted to go to the Las Vegas Mountains, and I found some some top edge like Mount Charleston,” he told AllStar Sport. “So … I went there, and then I realized, I need some more better shoes, better jacket. So I went back, I bought all these things like ski shoes and leather jacket, the Garmin watch, all these things.

“But what was wrong was that I didn’t watch the map well, because the map showed me it’s just [a hike] for a few hours, like maybe six hours. After six hours of walking high altitude, then I realized that I have to come back, or I need to hurry to the end. So I just decided to make it.

“It took me more than 16, 18 hours. And I forgot to take the light with me, because I thought it will be just for six hours. Then I got lost on this mountain.”

Prochazka, who at UFC 300 faces Aleksandar Rakic, eventually made it back to his car and safety. He thought he might have been in the clear before scanning his body for injuries.

“I went back [home], and next day, I realized that my toe on my left leg is a little bit black,” he said. “So I had frostbite, and right now, I feel it’s completely healed, but it took my nails [falling out], and it took six months to [grow] a full new nail and to feel better balance in the leg.”

Prochazka returned to the cage this past November and failed to re-acquire the light heavyweight title he was forced to relinquish in 2022 when he was knocked out by Alex Pereira in a bout for the vacant belt at UFC 295.

The former champ is known for his unusual training methods, punching trees and submitting to sensory deprivation between fights. His scare in the wilderness proved equally as challenging an experience, but one he welcomed as a modern samurai.

Was he scared? Absolutely. But, he added, “the fear is the part of ourselves.”

Check out the interview below.

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