Conor McGregor hasn’t competed in any capacity since July 2021.
The broken leg against Dustin Poirier inarguably earned McGregor plenty of time to recover on the sidelines, and had he opted to never fight again, nobody would have blamed the richest man in mixed martial arts (MMA). He achieved quite a bit during his rise, after all. The Irish double champion’s peak was a high matched by very few others, proving himself one of the sharpest knockout artists of all time during his heyday.
Peak McGregor was electric, a force of personality with the best left hand in the business.
Around that time, McGregor’s path crossed with Jeremy Stephens for the first time (verbally, at least). During a UFC 205 pre-fight press conference — UFC 205 was the evening in which McGregor captured a second world title by effortlessly toppling Eddie Alvarez — Stephens tried to interject himself into the mix of possible McGregor opponents.
And he was nearly laughed off the stage when McGregor dropped the iconic “Who da fook is that guy?” line.
The better part of eight years later, we’ve come full circle.
McGregor’s stock has fallen considerably, having won twice in just five bouts since then. He’s been in more courtrooms than cages lately. Stephens, conversely, has been actively fighting good competition the whole while. He lost plenty in that span, but Stephens has also fought 20 professional bouts between MMA, boxing and bareknuckle.
That’s an entire career!
Stephens was a good MMA fighter for a long time, good enough to be on UFC’s roster for 14 years and climb into the Featherweight rankings. He defeated legit foes like Dennis Bermudez, Gilbert Melendez and Josh Emmett, among others, in the process and hardly ever lost to anyone who wasn’t a future, former or current Top 10-ranked fighter.
The brawler has found a home in BKFC, too. Still just 3-0 in his new sport, Stephens has already stopped known talents in Jimmie Rivera and the aforementioned Alvarez. He’s mean, tough and heavy-handed as ever, which makes him perfect for the gritty violence of the squared circle.
McGregor owns part of that ring, and he faced off with Stephens last night following the “Underground King” KO (watch it). McGregor claims to want the match up versus Stephens, which now in the year of 2025, would be reasonable. I don’t make the odds or fully comprehend how McGregor hype would factor into them, but I expect most of those in the know would favor “Lil Heathen” outright if they square off sans-gloves.
The hypothetical match up serves as both a full circle moment and demonstration of the drastic change of circumstance from 2017, when the idea of these two competing was viewed as a literal joke.
The problem is it will remain hypothetical. McGregor does a lot more talking about fighting than actually competing nowadays. He’ll be linked — in theory — to a return vs. Dan Hooker, Indian boxing exhibition vs. a Paul brother, bareknuckle debut vs. Mike Perry … and then nothing happens. Last time UFC CEO, Dana White, commented on McGregor’s future, he pegged his return as Fall 2025, and the promotion has no intention of letting McGregor compete elsewhere.
It all adds up to another embarrassing low point.
McGregor isn’t even allowed to fight a previously laughable opponent in a promotion he partially owns. He’ll still take any chance to jump into the spotlight, but until he actually starts competing or somehow buys his freedom from UFC, only the flaws are in focus. In fact, the man himself looks red with hypertension and doesn’t even look sharp on the heavy bag anymore.
It’s getting really, really hard to be optimistic about the 36-year-old’s sad comeback.
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